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Smoke billows from TOKYO, Nov 13: Smoke billowed from a wheel of a Qantas Airways plane that was about to take off this morning from........more Vajpayee
denies LONDON, Nov 13: Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee today denied reports of a military alliance between India and the US ......more Rise
and fall of the ISLAMABAD, Nov 13: They banned music and television. Women could not work or girls go to school. Men were not allowed to trim their beards and ......more Robinson
warns against NEW DELHI, Nov 13: Expressing concern over the incidents of looting and other crimes in Kabul, UN High Commissioner ....more |
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US University restricts WASHINGTON, Nov 13: The Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore has imposed sanctions on a faculty member who tested experimental cancer .......more World’s largest Trishul installed in Nepal KATHMANDU, Nov 13: A huge "Trishul", made of copper and weighing about 5 tonnes has been installed in Mulakotgadhi, Bhaktapur district in .........more Typhoon
lingling HANOI, Nov 13: Billed as central Vietnam’s worst storm in years, typhoon lingling spun its way out of the country today, leaving at least 20 people ..........more China sends condolences for NY plane crash BEIJING, Nov 13: Chinese President Jiang Zemin sent a message of condolence for yesterday’s New York plane crash to US..........more |
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billows from wheel of Qantas plane TOKYO, Nov 13: Smoke billowed from a wheel of a Qantas Airways plane that was about to take off this morning from Japan’s Narita International Airport near Tokyo, local firefighters said. The plane aborted takeoff following the detection of smoke around 11 a.m. local time. The airline called up firefighters and the runway was shut down, a spokesman at the airport said. "There was a problem on heating system for wings," said a spokeswoman at Qantas Airways. The Boeing 767 plane with about 100 passengers and crew were originally leaving at Narita at 8:45 p.m. local time yesterday but the departure was delayed due to engine trouble, the Qantas Airways official said. The QF70 was re-scheduled for takeoff for Perth, Australia, at 10:30 a.m. local time today. "We believe the plane should finally leave Narita sometime today after confirming the safety," said the Qantas official. (DPA) |
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Vajpayee denies reports of military alliance LONDON, Nov 13: Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee today denied reports of a military alliance between India and the US and said defence cooperation did not mean entering into any agreement. Asked to comment on reports in Indian media on the Cabinet Committee on Security having recently rejected a military alliance with US in the context of the Afghanistan conflict, Vajpayee said he read in the newspapers about such a proposal but he has not seen that. To a related question on military cooperation with Russia and USA he said it meant that India’s relationship with these countries would be better. "It does not mean we are entering into any defence agreement," he said. (PTI) |
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Rise and fall of the Afghan Taliban ISLAMABAD, Nov 13: They banned music and television. Women could not work or girls go to school. Men were not allowed to trim their beards and executions took place by the goalposts of a football pitch. They also eradicated drugs and cleaned the land of guns. These are the Taliban. Their movement swept out of Pakistani religious schools and to power in war-ravaged Afghanistan in 1996 in a lightning capture of Kabul from the south as their Mujahideen, or holy warrior, opponents raced out to the north. Today, the tables turned. The Mujahideen fighters who now compose the opposition moved into the city from the north. Taliban tanks, armoured personnel carriers and troops packed into battered Japanese pickups streamed out all night toward their powerbase in southern Kandahar. They are now targets of the precision bombs of the world’s most modern air force as the United States punishes the Taliban for harbouring Osama Bin Laden, prime suspect in the suicide plane attacks that destroyed the World Trade Center and sliced through the Pentagon on September 11. The Taliban were fiercely proud of their achievement in imposing on their country a religious-based administration modelled on the utopia of a 1,300-year-old Islamic system after emerging as a force only in 1994 in the southern city Kandahar. But their religious fervour, their insularity, their awkward and inexperienced handling of diplomacy — and the absence of something as basic as television — may have sealed their demise. The Taliban’s spiritual leader is the reclusive Mullah Mohammad Omar, son of a poor Afghan peasant family who has never travelled further than neighbouring Pakistan and is only known to have met two westerners in his 44 years. The former guerrilla, who lost an eye fighting the soviet occupation, banned education for girls and women may not work. Television and photography of any living thing were prohibited because Islam forbids icons. Music - except for acappella religious chants - was also forbidden. Men were forbidden to trim their beards or women to go out in public unless swathed from head to toe. Islamic Sharia Law was strictly enforced with the hand amputated for theft, and executions carried out in public. The feared religious police, under the ministry for the promotion of virtue and prevention of vice, prowled city streets to force people to attend prayers five times a day and ensured women did not leave their homes without a male blood relative. The economy and infrastructure is in ruins, with the United Nations estimating that after 23 years of war and the worst drought in three decades up to a quarter of the 24 million population are fully or partly dependent on food aid. The Taliban were harsh and effective. They eradicated cultivation of opium poppies in a land that until two years ago was bathed in a sea of pink and white flowers and whose harvests supplied the vast majority of the world’s heroin. In a country where a man is a man when he carries a gun, the Taliban cleared tens, if not hundreds, of thousands of firearms out of the hands of ordinary people to try to restore law and order. The former theology students were hailed almost as saviours when their black-turbaned fighters swept north from Kandahar into Kabul in 1996, toppling the warring Mujahideen groups whose bloody squabbles over the capital after the Soviet-installed Government fell had destroyed much of the city. Many of those groups now make up the Northern Alliance, or United Front. Barely a shot was fired as the Taliban raced into the city, in many cases buying off Mujahideen commanders with funds provided by Pakistani military intelligence — eager to see peace on its western border. The most prominent casualty of the fall of Kabul was former president Najibullah and his brother who were dragged from the UN compound where they had sheltered for four years, and beaten and hanged from lamp posts in the city centre. But the Taliban, which in the pashto language means justice seekers, or students, failed to gain international recognition. Few Governments were ready to deal with the Taliban after the UN Security Council imposed sanctions last year as punishment for their refusal to hand over Bin Laden for earlier terrorist attacks. The United Nations still recognises the Government of Burhanuddin Rabbani, head of the opposition Northern Alliance and President when the Taliban seized power. The afghan seat on the Organisation of Islamic Conference sits vacant. Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates cut links as it became clear that the Taliban would not hand over Bin Laden. Their only diplomatic mission remained in Pakistan. The Taliban’s destruction in march of two ancient Giant Buddha figures in the central province of Bamiyan - bombing the magnificent sculptures to smithereens - further alienated international opinion and provoked worldwide outrage. This has had little impact on Mullah Omar, known officially by the Islamic title of Amir Al-Momineen or leader of the faithful, in which capacity he is effectively head of state. He has shown no sign of being ready to surrender Bin Laden. Indeed he may be unable to do so. The outside world understands little about the relationship between two of the most secretive men on earth. But Mullah Omar became increasingly dependent on Bin Laden not only for financing but to shore up his own rule since Bin Laden took shelter in Omar’s near-pariah state in 1996. They may not have been able to survive without each other. And that symbiosis appears to have sounded the death knell of the Islamic movement that Mullah Omar built from nothing through religious faith into the state that was his ideal. (REUTERS) |
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Robinson warns against track record of some NA leaders NEW DELHI, Nov 13: Expressing concern over the incidents of looting and other crimes in Kabul, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (UNHCHR) Mary Robinson today warned the situation could get worse with a "very bad" track record of human rights violation of some leaders of Northern Alliance. "There have already been some reports of looting of humanitarian aid and there is a fear that the situation in Kabul could turn worse. That would be tragic for the entire population in the area", Robinson, who met a select group of journalists here, said. She said the human rights track record of some of the Alliance leaders was "very bad" and there was all possibility of such leaders playing a key role in the future government in Afghanistan. Let the civilian population, who have a long history of being the sufferers of changing hands of the territory between the forces in Afghanistan, have a primary say in their future and formation of the Government, she said adding UNHCHR was monitoring very closely whether their interests were taken care of. Stressing that the military strategy to counter terrorism should be based on two guiding principles of necessity and proportion of the action to avoid injuries to innocents, Robinson, however, said whether the same was being followed by US was a matter to be decided by the UN Security Council. Whether the military strategy adopted by US after the September 11 terrorist attacks followed these principles will be decided by a World Court or likewise Tribunal, Robinson said. There were some reports which were disturbing and UN was concerned, but the Security Council will be in a better position to decide on the issue, she added. It was right to respond to those (September 11) terrorist attacks, she said but clarified that she was not the one to comment whether "US attacks were right or not". On Kashmir, Robinson said the seriousness of human rights situation in Jammu and Kashmir was due to "intense political" element because of which it was not possible to take all human rights measures in the area. However, she declined to say anything further on the issue and said she will hold deliberations with the Indian officials in the later part of her tour and it would only be right to comment after the discussions. Robinson, who arrived here on November 10 on first leg of her visit, would leave for Bangkok later in the day to discuss situation of human rights in the region with Regional Human Rights Advisor. She will be visiting the country again between November 15 to 19 during which she will also receive the Indira Gandhi prize for peace from President K R Narayanan.(PTI) |
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US University restricts faculty member from testing patients in India WASHINGTON, Nov 13: The Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore has imposed sanctions on a faculty member who tested experimental cancer drugs on patients in Kerala in 1999-2000 without the approval of the University Review Board. The University had launched a probe into the clinical trial of the cancer drug by the researcher, Ru Chih Huang, in Kerala. One of the reported charges against the researcher was that she did not tell the patients of the risks of the drug. Ru Chih Huang, a Professor of Biology at the University, had said the drug was tested on 25 patients with oral cancer. Denying that the drug was toxic, she said instead the medicine had worked exceedingly well during the trials. The University decided to start an investigation after reports of irregularities surfaced in the indian media, the paper said. The University’s research programme had come under a cloud lately with death of a young woman in an asthma trial and a US federal agency imposing restrictions over clinical trials that are federally funded. Though the University did not find any harm caused by the use of the drug, it noted that Ms Huang did not conduct adequate preliminary tests of the cancer drug on animals. Ms Huang has been barred from serving as lead investigator on future research involving human subjects. "A senior faculty member should supervise her if she participates in any studies on humans led by other researchers," the University decreed. The committee’s report was not made public, University spokesman Dennis O’Shea said, and Ms Huang was not named in the university statements due to confidentiality policy. (UNI) |
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World’s largest Trishul installed in Nepal KATHMANDU, Nov 13: A huge "Trishul", made of copper and weighing about 5 tonnes has been installed in Mulakotgadhi, Bhaktapur district in Nepal, world’s only Hindu Kingdom, for the purpose of promoting peace and harmony. The 32 ft tall "Trishul", one of the tallest in the world, is 1uilt by Shiva Sena Nepal. A grand procession carrying the "Trishul" went around Kathmandu, starting from Balaju industrial district, and finally reached Mulakotgadhi, 25 km east of the Himalayan Kingdom’s capital. The Trishul procession was aimed at promoting peace and harmony and denouncing terrorism, president of Shiva Sena Nepal, Arun Subedi said. (PTI) |
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Typhoon lingling kills 20 in Vietnam HANOI, Nov 13: Billed as central Vietnam’s worst storm in years, typhoon lingling spun its way out of the country today, leaving at least 20 people dead and 83 injured, official agencies said. The typhoon uprooted thousands of trees, destroyed crops and roads and washed away more than 2,600 homes, the central flood and storm control committee reported. Torrential rains lashed a 1,000-kilometre stretch of coastline yesterday, damaging another 12,000 homes and forcing the evacuation of 562 households as 240 millimetres of rain fell on some areas. Hundreds of fishing boats were sunk, and communication severed in several provinces as 130-kilometre-per-hour winds downed powerlines. Fifteen deaths were recorded in hard-hit Phu Yen province, 400 kilometres northeast of Ho Chi Minh City, before lingling lost steam as it swirled into the coffee-growing central highlands. Swollen rivers in Quang Nam and Danang provinces were expected to reach dangerously high peaks later Tuesday before dropping, according to the national hydro-meteorology centre. Rivers also surged to alarm level in Quang Ngai, where dikes were at risk, raising concern about potential flooding of low-lying areas. Lingling, which was downgraded to a tropical storm shortly after landfall, headed west into Cambodia and southern Laos early Tuesday, the committee reported on its website. Losses to date were estimated by the central flood and storm committee at 380 billion dong, or about 25 million dollars. In Vietnam, lingling failed to match the ferocity it unleashed over the Philippines last week, when more than 200 people were killed in a devastating natural show of force. (DPA) |
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China sends condolences for NY plane crash BEIJING, Nov 13: Chinese President Jiang Zemin sent a message of condolence for yesterday’s New York plane crash to US President George W Bush, expressing sympathy to the US Government and people, official news agency Xinhua reported today. "Soon after our telephone conversation last evening, I was shocked to learn that a US passenger airplane crashed in New York with heavy casualties and huge loss of properties. I am deeply saddened by all this," Xinhua quoted jiang as saying. "On behalf of the Chinese Government and the Chinese people, I wish to convey to you and, through you, to the Government and the people of the United States our deep sympathy. We also express our condolences to the victims," the Chinese President told Bush. The American Airlines Flight 587 crashed with 255 people on board shortly after takeoff from a New York airport. (UNI) |
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