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relatives appeal to Philippine Govt, Abu Sayyaf MANILA, May 30: Relatives of 20 hostages held by moslem extremists in the southern Philippines...more Doctors extract CAIRO, May 30: Doctors in Dakhalia, Egypt managed to save the life of a 23-year-old woman after ...more Delegates at racism meet GENEVA, May 30: With more than a week gone and a major portion of the issues on racism in the....more |
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Taliban, UN
still at loggerheads KABUL, May 30: The United Nations has said Tuesday that the Taliban still refused to allow women......more Laden’s followers NEW YORK, May 30: In a verdict described by prosecutors as the triumph of world justice, four .......more Sharif’s trial not LONDON, May 30: Last year’s trial of ousted Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif did not meet..........more |
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Hostages’ relatives appeal to Philippine Govt, Abu Sayyaf MANILA, May 30: Relatives of 20 hostages held by moslem extremists in the southern Philippines today appealed to the Government not to be hasty in launching a military offensive against the rebels, which could endanger the lives of the captives. The family members also urged the Abu Sayyaf rebels not to harm the hostages - three American tourists and 17 Filipinos, including an eight-year-old boy. The captives were seized on Sunday from the Dos Palmas resort on Arreceffi Island off the western province of Palawan. "Our fear is that the hostages might be killed by the rebels since the military is after their heads anyway," said Jazmin Montealegre, an aunt of 8-year-old R J Recio, who was abducted with his father, mother and another aunt. "I hope that President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo will also understand the concerns of the relatives of the victims," she added. Montealegre also urged the Abu Sayyaf to free her nephew, who she said is sickly and has weak lungs. The father of another Filipino hostage, Dos Palmas security guard Eldrin Morales, called on the rebels not to hurt his son. "I am appealing to the abu sayyaf not to harm my son because he is a good person," said Edito Morales. "He has no enemies." Yesterday Abu Sayyaf spokesman Abu Sabaya warned the rebels would not hesitate to kill all the hostages if the military launches a rescue operation. But Arroyo ignored the threat and warned the extremists that if they do not free their hostages, "bullets will rain down on you". She ordered the military to hunt down the extremists and rescue the captives, who have reportedly been brought to the southern island of Jolo where the rebels held dozens of hostages seized during a kidnapping spree last year. A police intelligence officer in Jolo said the Abu Sayyaf and their hostages were last sighted in a village in the town of Luuk. The Government has offered huge cash rewards for the capture or any information leading to the arrest of Abu Sayyaf leaders and members. A two-million-dollar fund has been set aside for the bounty. Armed forces spokesman Edilberto Adan said the military would welcome help from various civilian arm groups in the fight against the Abu Sayyaf, but stressed it was not encouraging vigilantism. "Any group that can neutralise the Abu Sayyaf will certainly help the Government," he said. Adan stressed that the Government has not received a formal appeal from the relatives of the hostages not to conduct a military operation. "In fact the relatives are happy with what the Government is doing and they have vowed to cooperate with us," he said. "They are leaving it up to the government to take the necessary action to rescue their loved ones and to stop these terrorists." Arroyo has imposed a news blackout on the military operations to rescue the hostages and wipe out the Abu Sayyaf. "The military and police are hunting down the bandits," she said. "But I am appealing to the media to understand the sensitivity of the military operation. Secrecy is important in this operation to surprise the enemies." (DPA) |
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Doctors extract half kilo of hair from woman’s stomach CAIRO, May 30: Doctors in Dakhalia, Egypt managed to save the life of a 23-year-old woman after removing masses of human hair from her internal organs, the semi-official Al-Ahram daily has reported. According to the report, Hanan Ahmed Mohammed had been admitted to a hospital emergency ward after taking ill, but was discharged 24 hours later after being treated for intestinal inflammation. The following day, the report said yesterday, she was checked in to the Mansoura University Teaching Hospital where doctors diagnosed her as being a psychiatric case and referred her to another clinic. The clinic’s doctor, after being told by Mohammed’s mother that she had a history of eating her hair, decided to carry out further tests, including an X-ray. Immediately, doctors at the clinic decided to perform an operation on the patient that resulted in the discovery of three circular masses of hair weighing half a kilo inside her stomach and intestines. Mohammmed’s health was reported to be stabilizing after the hair was removed. Her mother told doctors that Mohammed began eating her hair almost a year ago, when she awakened one day to discover that much of her hair had fallen out. She was so depressed by the incident that she began eating the hair, which over time resulted in respiratory problems and stomach complications, her mother said. (DPA) |
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Delegates at racism meet doubtful of positive results GENEVA, May 30: With more than a week gone and a major portion of the issues on racism in the draft declaration and programme of action yet to be discussed, delegates here are doubtful whether the second Prepcom on world conference on racism would be able do justice to the proposals on this contentious issue during its two-week long sittings. In spite of the delegates from five regional groups of UN including Asia, Europe, and Africa being divided into two working groups to give momentum to the process of drafting a declaration for world conference on racism to be held in Durban, the progress has been very slow. While consultations are on among the various regional groups, less than 30 per cent of the draft declaration has been taken up for discussion, delegates told PTI. "Besides the portion which has not been discussed so far, there are issues from the discussed part which are still in brackets which means further deliberations on those paragraphs are needed," they said. In addition to Government officials, representatives from more than 250 NGOs are also busy making suggestions and counter-suggestions on the issue. The Prepcom, being organised in the ‘international year of mobilisation against racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance’ declared by the UN, is preparing the draft document for the Durban conference to be held between August 31 and September seven. Whereas the Prepcom is also expected to raise public awareness on racism and racial discrimination globally, the durban conference, the third in the series, will be held to provide a momentum for further political commitment to the elimination of the scourge. As the host country, South Africa has appealed to the international community for support in eliminating "the curse on humankind" and make the Durban conference a success. (PTI) |
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Taliban, UN still at loggerheads KABUL, May 30: The United Nations has said Tuesday that the Taliban still refused to allow women to be hired for a survey needed to continue bread supplies for nearly 300,000 people in the Afghan capital. The UN World Food Programme had given the Taliban until June 15 to agree to a survey to ensure food aid was reaching the neediest people in the city of some 1.6 million, but the hardline Islamic movement has so far refused to reconsider. "The most important issue is the issue of the possibility of the UN to hire women ... And there is no breakthrough," Erick De Mul, head of UN humanitarian aid to Afghanistan, said after two days of negotiations. "There is no real movement on that score." The Taliban movement, which is trying impose an extreme interpretation of Islam on the 90 per cent of Afghanistan it controls, said on Saturday it would block the poverty survey because it required hiring women and would violate Islamic principles. The Taliban refusal to allow the Kabul survey is the latest in a growing number of confrontations with the UN and private organisations that provide most of the social services in the war-ravaged country. The Taliban triggered worldwide outrage last week with a decree ordering Hindus in the overwhelmingly Muslim country to wear yellow badges, evoking memories of the Nazi order that Jews in Germany wear yellow stars of David. The UN World Food Programme has warned the Taliban for more than a year that a survey was vital to ensure bread —distributed to 282,000 people from bakeries at 12 per cent of the retail price — was reaching those most in need. But the Taliban have consistently objected to the hiring of women, which is necessary because men cannot enter homes to interview women under Taliban rules. Women are barred from almost all work outside the home. Both the UN and Taliban officials said after the latest talks that negotiations would continue. "That is the bottom line," said De Mul. "Women will have to be involved in the survey ... It is logical and it is important. And it is because so many women are there and they are the most vulnerable group in the Afghan society." The distribution of subsidised bread has been under way since 1995, the year before the taliban swept into Kabul. WFP said its existing bread distribution lists no longer identified those in most need, especially with poverty deepening after 21 years of war and the worst drought in three decades. It said there was widespread corruption under the present system. Despite the closing of the major bread subsidy system, the WFP said it will continue to operate 21 female-run bakeries in the city — also a constant source of tension with the Taliban. The United Nations earlier this month complained of widespread and increasing Taliban harassment of foreign and Afghan aid workers, who provide most services in the absence of normal Government functions. Taliban religious police raided a new Italian-run hospital two weeks ago, beating staff and arresting three employees on grounds that men and women had been eating in the same room. A number of UN staff have also been detained. Earlier this year the Taliban outraged the world by blowing up two giant ancient Buddhist statues it deemed un-Islamic. (REUTERS) |
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Laden’s followers convicted
in US Embassy NEW YORK, May 30: In a verdict described by prosecutors as the triumph of world justice, four followers of Saudi terrorist mastermind Osama Bin Laden have been found guilty of bombing two US Embassies in Africa three years ago in which 224 people, including 12 Americans, were killed. In the verdict delivered by a manhattan jury yesterday after three months of trial, two face possible death penalty and the rest life terms without parole. The four - Mohamed Rashid Daoud Al-Owhali, 24, Khalfan Khamis Mohamed, 27, Wadih El-Hage, 40, and Mohamed Sadeek Odeh, 36, were found guilty of conspiring to kill American citizens and attacking its military facilities worldwide. The jury of seven women and five men, whose names were never revealed to keep their identities secret, took 12 days to reach the decision which relatives of the victims hailed. The bombings of the embassies in Nairobi, Kenya, and Dar-Es-Salaam, Tanzania, on August 7, 1998, were part of the conspiracy which, prosecutors say, was overseen by Bin Laden. Al-Owgail, a Saudi, and Khamis Mohamed, a Tanzanian, face the possible death penalty as they were convicted on the charge of using explosives to cause mass destruction. Odeh, a Jordanian, and El-Hage, a naturalised American citizen born in Lebanon, who, prosecutors say, helped prepare for the attack but left Nairobi before it, face life in prison. The hearing for the penalty will begin immediately before the same jury. (PTI) |
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Sharif’s trial not fair in Pakistan LONDON, May 30: Last year’s trial of ousted Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif did not meet standards of fairness, Amnesty International said today in an annual report which blasted the military Government’s lip service to human rights. The London-based human rights group said the anti-terrorism court proceedings against Sharif, who was ousted in a coup in October 1999 and convicted of hijacking in April last year, "did not fully meet standards for fair trial." Sharif was released from lengthy prison terms in December when he was banned from politics for 21 years and exiled to Saudi Arabia by the military Government under General Pervez Musharraf. He has always maintained his innocence but has little sympathy among ordinary Pakistanis who see him and his cronies in the former ruling party as hopelessly corrupt. Earlier this year, the corruption conviction of another former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto was set aside when the Supreme Court ruled that the Sharif Government had rigged her trial. Musharraf has taken no action against the high court judge who allegedly produced the guilty verdict to appease his former political patrons. Amnesty said Musharraf was paying lip service to human rights. "Despite the Government’s stated commitment to human rights protection, human rights violations including torture and deaths in custody increased during 2000," the amnesty report said. "Minorities were not given adequate protection... Violence against women and children continued at a high level. Political activities remained restricted," amnesty said. Musharraf made a major speech about his commitment to human rights shortly after the coup. But amnesty said he had failed to improve the plight of women in the Islamic state, had pandered to violent religious extremists and had thrown hundreds of political activists into detention. "Some members of the previous Government continued to be detained without charge or trial," it said, adding that "torture in police custody and jails, often of people held in unlawful detention, continued to be widespread." It said at least 25 people had been killed by police in custody last year, while several juvenile detainees had been sexually abused. "Children were subjected to abuses in custody and in the community, for instance as child labourers or bonded labourers. Domestic violence against children, including sexual abuse, remained widespread," it said. "The State made virtually no attempt to prevent these abuses or to hold the perpetrators to account." Violence against women, including the murders of women alleged to have blackened family honour, was a "rising trend" despite Musharraf’s stated determination to protect women’s rights. Musharraf had also buckled under pressure from violent Islamic extremists, notably in his plans to change the blasphemy law to prevent its misuse. (AFP) |
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