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First-ever
visit of BEIJING, May 27: China has hailed as "successful" the just-concluded visit by chief of Indian Air Force (IAF) Air Chief ....more JERUSALEM, May 27: Two car bombs rocked Jerusalem hours apart today, wounding several people and underscoring ...more OIC
asks member DUBAI, May 27: The Organisation of Islamic Conference (OIC) has called upon the ....more |
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56-year-old woman LONDON, May 27: A 56-year-old woman has become Britain’s oldest mother of twins, according to a published report. Lynn Bezant, of Croughton, Northants, gave birth to the boy and girl on Thursday, the mirror newspaper reported yesterday.......more Powell
attacked NAIROBI, May 27: US Secretary of State Colin Powell came under fire today from Kenyan AIDS activists angry at what they called the US Government’s inadequate response to the fight against the disease.....more Asian
business LONDON, May 27: The influential Asian business community in the UK has given a commanding 24-point lead to the ruling Labour Party over its nearest conservative rival in an opinion poll conducted for the June seven general elections. According to a survey.........more |
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First-ever visit of IAF chief "successful": China BEIJING, May 27: China has hailed as "successful" the just-concluded visit by chief of Indian Air Force (IAF) Air Chief Marshall A Y Tipnis and said it would help enhance military-to-military ties and improve overall relations between the two neighbours. "We feel that the visit is successful in enhancing mutual understanding and trust between the two militaries and is helpful towards promoting the further development of bilateral relations," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhu Bangzao told PTI here, commenting on Tipnis’ visit. Noting that Tipnis met with Defence Minister General Chi Haotian and the Chief of Staff of People’s Liberation Army (PLA) Gen Fu Quanyou, the spokesman said both sides used the opportunity to exchange frank views on the development of Sino-Indian military ties. Tipnis, the first IAF chief to visit China in the 51 years of Sino-Indian diplomatic relations, said he was "extremely happy" to be in China and meet with his counterpart as well as senior leaders of the Chinese Central Military Commission (CMC) and the PLA. "I believe the visit has gone on a very positive note. Seeing the Chinese response, I believe that the bilateral military-to-military relationship, especially between the two air forces, will expand further in the coming years," Tipnis said. The IAF chief, who concluded his week-long visit on saturday, was given a comprehensive briefing by the People’s Liberation Army Air Force (PLAAF) Commander Gen Liu Shunyao on PLAAF’s mission, organisation and focus. "The meetings were very cordial and very warm, and I could see that the two air forces could interact for mutual benefit," Tipnis said, adding he and his Chinese counterpart Liu had developed a personal rapport. In course of the talks, IAF and PLAAF decided to chalk out a programme to initiate cooperation. IAF also accepted a request by PLAAF to send a delegation to witness the selection process of Indian pilots. As a confidence-building measure, the four-member iaf delegation accompanying Tipnis was taken to the Beijing capital air defence centre and was briefed about the high-tech facility that is one of the nerve centres of the PLAAF. Tipnis said he was impressed by the Centre and by the answers to his queries concerning it. He also interacted with the staff and students of the Air Force Command College and delivered a speech on "trends in the development of air power in the 21st century". The IAF delegation also visited the aviation museum here, considered the largest in the world. Describing his tour programme as "well-thought out", Tipnis said he saw many aspects of the PLAAF and visited different regions of China. Apart from Beijing, the IAF chief went to Xi’an - capital of Shaanxi province in north-west China, Chengdu - capital of south-west China’s Sichuan province, as well as the booming Guangdong province in south China. Plaaf has bases in Xi’an and Chengdu where Chinese F-6, F-7 and F-8 fighters are stationed. Tipnis also visited Air Force Engineering College here and an aviation industrial facility. In Chengdu, Tipnis met with the Chengdu Military Region Commander Gen Liu Xilong as well as his deputy. (PTI) |
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JERUSALEM, May 27: Two car bombs rocked Jerusalem hours apart today, wounding several people and underscoring the struggle facing a renewed US diplomatic bid to end eight months of Israeli-Palestinian violence. The bombs blew up 200 metres apart — one around midnight in a pub district packed with young Israelis and the other at 9 a.m (1130 hrs Ist) off a main shopping street on the eve of the Jewish Shavuot (Tabernacles) festival. In the second blast — claimed by the Palestinian Islamic Jihad Group — ambulance workers and police said two people were slightly wounded. More than 20 were treated for shock. No one was hurt in the first car bomb. Police said the second bomb was made from mortar shells and packed with nails. Some of the mortars were thrown hundreds of metres by the force of the blast, police said. "I was selling bagels when all of a sudden I heard two strong explosions and four small ones. People started running," said Noah Goldberg, who works at a coffee shop. The blasts dealt a severe blow to a bid by the United States, the traditional broker in Middle East peacemaking, to coax Israelis and Palestinians to halt eight months of bloodshed and return to the peace table. William burns, the new US envoy for the Middle East, was due to meet Palestinian President Yasser Arafat hours later in the West Bank City of Ramallah, and Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon in Jerusalem. A spokesman for Sharon, Raanan Gissin, said Israel’s five-day-old call for a ceasefire remained intact but he said Arafat and the Palestinian authority were to blame for the rise in car bombings. "At this stage the ceasefire is still in effect but of course our patience is running short with the continuation, the escalation in car bomb attacks which are all attributed to the Palestinian authority," Gissin told Reuters. Sharon was due to meet senior cabinet ministers later today to discuss the latest attacks, Israel radio reported. Palestinians have dismissed Sharon’s call as a public relations gimmick. They insist Israel’s policy of Jewish settlement in occupied lands and use of military force to quell a Palestinian uprising are to blame for unceasing unrest. At least 448 Palestinians, 87 Israelis and 13 Israeli Arabs have been killed in the Palestinian revolt against Israeli rule in the West Bank and Gaza, lands captured in the 1967 Middle East war. The revolt erupted last September after peace talks stalled. Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility for the latest attack in a fax to reuters in Beirut. A second fax sent claimed responsibility for the midnight blast in the name of the popular Army front return battalions. That blast in the pub area, just moments after midnight, could be heard miles from where it went off in an area known as the Russian compound for the 19th century Russian-designed buildings there. Israel’s mayor of Jerusalem, Ehud Olmert, said it was a stroke of luck no one was wounded in the explosion close to a popular bar area frequented by youngsters, and near a Jerusalem police headquarters. The attacks were a harsh blow to the city, still reeling from the death of at least 23 people after a banquet hall collapsed in the country’s worst civil disaster. It also came hard on the heels of Palestinian suicide attacks on Friday. More than 60 Israelis were wounded when two suicide bombers rammed their car into a bus in the central Israeli town of Hadera. Earlier the same day, a suicide truck bomber blew himself up near an Israeli Army outpost in Gaza. Yesterday, Muslim states agreed at the end of a meeting in Qatar to sever political contacts with Israel "so long as the aggression and blockade against the Palestinian people and its national authority continues". The 56-member Organisation of the Islamic Conference (OIC) issued a 22-point statement that called for a halt in normalising ties with Israel and for the closure of its missions and offices in member states. Israeli and Palestinian officials said they did not expect an immediate breakthrough from the latest round of US-led diplomacy. Statements by the sides on the eve of the meetings offered little hope they were closer to ending hostilities. Israeli television said thousands of chanting, flag-waving fans invaded the pitch after Haifa scored, crushing the victims against a fence. (REUTERS) |
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OIC asks member countries
to halt political DUBAI, May 27: The Organisation of Islamic Conference (OIC) has called upon the member countries to halt all political contacts with Israel for its aggression against the Palestinians, and urged the United Nations to establish an international tribunal to prosecute Israeli officials responsible for the killings of innocent Palestinians as war criminals. As violence continued unabated in Palestinian areas, the 56-member OIC, at an emergency meeting in the Qatari capital of Doha, also called upon the United states to "intervene urgently" to bring an immediate end to the Israeli aggression. In a communique issued at the end of the day-long meeting yesterday, the member countries announced that they had decided "to halt all political contacts with the Israeli Government as long as aggression and blockade against the Palestinian people and its national authority continues". The OIC also urged the member states, which have already established ties with Israel, to close all missions and offices of the Jewish state. The OIC meeting came a week after the 22-member Arab League, at an extra-ordinary meeting in Cairo, called for snapping all contacts with Israel. In his opening remarks at the OIC meeting, Palestinian President Yasser Arafat slammed what he called the UN’s "total impotence" in the face of mounting deaths in the Palestinian territories, pinning the blame on the US. "Why is there this total impotence of the Security Council?" he asked. Mr Arafat vowed that the uprising against the Israelis would continue "until the Palestinian flag is hoisted on Jerusalem". Israel was being protected despite "shrinking" peace accords signed with the palestinians, he charged, adding that the international community was neglecting its duty to send "a protection force or observers to the West Bank and Gaza Strip". Mr Arafat, however, renewed his call for the resumption of peace talks with Israel. The communique lauded the Palestinian uprising and reiterated the OIC’s political and material support to the Palestinian people. It urged the member nations to launch popular donations campaigns to aid the Palestinians. The OIC asserted that political assassinations and collective punishment of the Palestinians by the Israelis amounted to war crimes and said the Israeli officials responsible for such acts must be prosecuted. It also demanded that the UN take measures to force Israel into paying compensations to the Palestinians for the financial and material losses suffered by them. The OIC also assigned a ministerial committee to pressure the Security Council to provide protection to the Palestinians. The committee is due to visit the capitals of the five permanent members of the Security Council. (UNI) |
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56-year-old woman gives birth to twins LONDON, May 27: A 56-year-old woman has become Britain’s oldest mother of twins, according to a published report. Lynn Bezant, of Croughton, Northants, gave birth to the boy and girl on Thursday, the mirror newspaper reported yesterday. David Stephen John, who weighed 3LB 4OZ, and Susan Jennifer Claire, who was 4LB 15OZ, were delivered by Caesarean section at the Horton General Hospital in Banbury, Oxon. Mrs Bezant, who also has three grown-up children, told the newspaper: "I’m just so happy, it’s unbelievable. "It was a marvellous experience. I’ve got no regrets - I never have had at any stage even when I was feeling nauseous." The births followed fertility treatment - husband Derek, also 56, had a vasectomy after Mrs Bezant gave birth to stillborn twins in 1977, also at 36 weeks, and suffered a miscarriage three years later. The mirror said that a donor’s eggs were fertilised using his sperm. The non-identical twins were both said to be in the hospital’s special baby care unit because of their tiny size and were being fed through tubes in their noses. Bezant said he and his wife were relieved the delivery had gone well and were looking forward to taking the twins home, probably next month. (DPA) |
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Powell attacked in Kenya over US AIDS policy NAIROBI, May 27: US Secretary of State Colin Powell came under fire today from Kenyan AIDS activists angry at what they called the US Government’s inadequate response to the fight against the disease. Powell, in Kenya on a four-nation tour of Africa, pledged to keep the search for an AIDS cure high on Washington’s agenda but reacted more cautiously to calls for cheaper AIDS drugs for the world’s poorest continent. "President Bush and his administration will do everything they can to seek out and find that cure, a cure that will hopefully be available to people all over the world," he told an AIDS workshop in Nairobi’s sprawling Kibera slum. Earlier Patricia Ochieng, an HIV-positive activist with the Kenya coalition for access to essential medicines, appealed to Powell to allow Africa to import cheap generic AIDS drugs, a move bitterly opposed by the global pharmaceutical industry. "I do have a very special appeal to you and the US Government to give more funds to Africa for treatment and to promote generic competition," she told Powell in a departure from the text of a speech approved by US officials. Ochieng said antiretroviral drugs could have saved the lives of her husband and child, who both died of AIDS. "I felt so bad knowing that there were drugs that could maybe have prolonged his life but we could not afford this medicine and yet they were there." The Kenya coalition described a recent pledge by the US Government for 200 million dollars towards UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan’s appeal for a global AIDS fund as woefully inadequate. "This contribution represents merely two per cent of the up to 10 billion dollars that health experts are estimating will be needed a year to control AIDS in Africa," it said in a statement released to coincide with Powell’s visit. Activists said they had been prevented by US officials from unfurling a banner saying "put lives before profit" during the workshop. "I got called by the (US) chief of security and told if you cause any trouble or put up the banner you are really, really going to get it from the police," Bertha Gachui, a member of the coalition, told Reuters." US Embassy officials said they had no information about the alleged incident. The coalition also urged Powell to support a controversial bill expected for debate in Kenya’s Parliament early next month that would allow the country to import cheap generic medicines, including antiretroviral AIDS drugs that have helped reduce the number of AIDS deaths in the west by 75 per cent. The legislation is opposed by multinational drugs giants which last month were badly bruised in South Africa after abandoning a court case seeking to challenge a similar law. Triple combination AIDS drugs cost well over 1,000 dollars per patient each year, campaigners say. With more than half of Kenya’s population earning less than one dollar a day, only about 1,000 of Kenya’s 2.2 million AIDS sufferers have access to the drugs. Powell expressed his sympathy over the problem but made no firm pledges to reduce the cost of the drugs. "I am moved by her plea for the United States...To do what we can to get the treatment costs down to the lowest possible costs so that we can make them more widely available," he said. (REUTERS) |
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Asian business community favour labour: Survey LONDON, May 27: The influential Asian business community in the UK has given a commanding 24-point lead to the ruling Labour Party over its nearest conservative rival in an opinion poll conducted for the June seven general elections. According to a survey conducted by the Opinion Research Business, 39 per cent of Asians said they would vote for the Labour Party at the election while only 15 per cent favoured the conservatives. Twenty seven per cent of the voters were undecided. An overwhelming 60 per cent reposed faith in the leadership of Prime Minister Tony Blair as against the seven per cent opting for conservative leader William Hague and three per cent for liberal democrats leader Charles Kennedy, results of the survey published in the latest issue of Asian trader, a Gujarati-cum-English fortnightly, showed. A total of 201 respondents were sampled for the survey carried out from May eight to 17. Asian and black voters in Britain hold the balance of power in at least 80 of 659 parliamentary constituencies. Surprisingly, just one in seven Asian business people considers racial discrimination to be a major issue for the election, though almost half of those surveyed have had first hand experience of race attacks and believe race to be a hindrance in their lives. Despite race not figuring as a top election issue, they said it hindered their relationship with the police, blue chip companies and affected their chances of employment. The Asian business community people is optimistic about the future of the country, with over half of them (55 per cent) believing the uk is "heading in the right direction" under labour. Law and order has emerged as the greatest area of concern for the community. It has also expressed apprehensions about the state of education and that of the national health service. The survey shows two in five believe their financial situation has improved in the last 12 months, while 31 per cent thinks their business will improve over the coming year. Opinion appears to be highly divided on which party most supports the business interests of the Asian community. Nearly one in three feels that none of the parties are doing a good job in representing them. About 37 per cent claim labour is the best party for businesses, a quarter the conservatives and only three per cent the liberal democrats. Shailesh Solanki, Executive Editor of Asian Trader, said "the Asian business community seems to separate its personal prospects from the prospects of the country as a whole and most believe that under labour, the country is heading in the right direction. "However, there seems to be a generally high level of scepticism over the ability of any of the parties to serve their business needs," he said. "Perhaps the most worrying finding is the high number who have been victims of racial attacks and the general view that their treatment by the police is affected by the colour of their skin." (PTI) |
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