|
|
| Pak open to US
troops crossing border: Paper WASHINGTON, Mar 27: Pakistan may allow US troops to enter its territory from Afghanistan to .......more Old dogs may have taught SYDNEY, Mar 27: The adage that you cannot teach an old dog new tricks may be the wrong way....more Indian passenger SINGAPORE, Mar 27: A drunk Indian national aboard a Singapore Airlines flight has been jailed for ......more Pak flayed for not NEW YORK, Mar 27: A US press watchdog has flayed the Pakistan Government for not granting........more |
|
Musharraf rules out abandoning parliamenatry democracy ISLAMABAD, Mar 27: Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf has sought to dismiss the speculation ....more India’s free press a NEW YORK, Mar 27: Agreeing that India’s free press is the strongest pillar of its democracy....more Masood Azhar shifted ISLAMABAD, Mar 27: The Pakistan Government has shifted Masood Azhar...more Govt, LTTE agree to COLOMBO, Mar 27: LTTE has agreed to begin face-to-face negotiations....more |
 |
|
Pak open to US troops crossing border: Paper WASHINGTON, Mar 27: Pakistan may allow US troops to enter its territory from Afghanistan to pursue Al Qaeda and Taliban fighters, the Washington Times reported, citing a senior Pakistani official. Pakistani Foreign Minister Abdul Sattar said Islamabad is open to discussions on lifting a policy that prevents US troops from crossing the border, the newspaper reported yesterday. "There is no problem. US forces can cross the border into Pakistan if necessary — we should discuss it," Sattar said in an interview with Washington Times. "There is great US-Pakistani cooperation in the border area. We can discuss how to handle things," the Foreign Minister said. Sattar spoke by telephone from Geneva, where he was attending a meeting of the UN Human Rights Commission, the newspaper said. Two US senators visiting soldiers in Afghanistan said yesterday that some Al Qaeda fighters had fled to Pakistan and raised the possibility of putting US troops on the rugged border to prevent others from escaping. Sen. Richard Shelby, a Republican from Alabama and Vice Chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, told reporters, "I am sure some of them have gone across to Pakistan." "I am hoping that the Government of Pakistan is going to join us in a big way to rid the border of ... The Al Qaeda who would use Pakistan as a sanctuary," he added. The Pakistani Foreign Minister pointed out that Pakistani troops already were deployed in the rugged border area, The Washington Times said. "But if American forces are closer, then through communications between US and Pakistani forces, we can arrive at an understanding," Sattar told the paper. US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld told reporters on Monday he had no plans to send US troops across the border to help Pakistanis look for Al Qaeda and Taliban troops who have fled from Afghanistan. Sattar said in the interview that about 300 suspected Al Qaeda and Taliban fighters have been detained by Pakistani forces and were being interrogated. He disputed reports that hundreds or thousands more found a safe haven in the lawless border region, the report said. "The Government made it abundantly clear (Al Qaeda) are not welcome and anyone who shelters them takes a great risk," the Foreign Minister said. (AGENCIES) |
|
Old dogs may have taught man essential tricks SYDNEY, Mar 27: The adage that you cannot teach an old dog new tricks may be the wrong way round. It could have been that new tricks were taught to people by dogs more than 100,000 years ago, prompting humankind to take a leap in development leading to modern culture and society, Australia-based researchers said yesterday. "We believe there were several forces that led to the development of anatomically and behaviourly modern humans, and that the close relationship between our human ancestors and wolves was one of the key factors," Paul Tacon, Principal Research scientist at the Australian Museum, told newsmen. Tacon and Bio-archaeology Consultant Colin Pardoe published the theory on Tuesday in the peer-reviewed journal nature Australia. At the heart of their contention that the ancestors of man’s best friend were instrumental in helping humans to survive and thrive is what they call growing archaeological and genetic evidence that the partnership went back at least 100,000 to 130,000 years — far longer than conventionally thought. Tacon said modern man’s strong territorialism is not shared by other primates. However, wolves and dogs have always been ferociously territorial. This quality may have rubbed off after generations of living together. Rock art or stencilled outlines of hands could have been ancient man’s means of marking his territory, in much the same way as a dog marks his with urine. As man’s sense of smell diminished, possibly because we began to rely on domesticated wolves, a visual and more durable way of staking out territory would have been a logical alternative to scent-based markings. "Eventually this led to the development of all sorts of figurative art around 40,000 years ago," Tacon said. Big game hunting would have been easier with some cooperation from wolves. By pursuing big game, man was able to survive in less friendly environments and occupy deserts and the arctic. Of perhaps greatest significance is the theory that learning how to get on with and then domesticate wolves could also have taught humans how to develop relationships with other humans. Primates are naturally good at infant-mother relationships but do not tend towards a strong ability for same sex ties. Tacon and Pardoe argue that the human-canine partnership potentially paved the way for friendly contact between humans. "That was a tremendous survival advantage because that speeds up the exchange of ideas between groups of people, the exchange of material culture and of course gene flow," Tacon said. "Through cooperation we’ve achieved incredible feats, we’ve been able to reach the moon for instance." The idea that man may owe his best friend more than we acknowledge needs a lot more study, the researchers say. Until recently, it was thought that dogs were domesticated only 14,000 years ago. Wolf bones found near human bones dating back 400,000 years in britain, 300,000 years in China and 150,000 years in France were dismissed as signs that we used to eat them. But Tacon said there were gaps in our understanding of human development that might be answered by raising new questions. "We’re looking at the past from a new perspective," he said. "If we can bring more and more perspectives to bear on our interpretation of the past, we’ll have a closer approximation of exactly what was going on." (AGENCIES) |
|
Indian passenger jailed three weeks for air rage SINGAPORE, Mar 27: A drunk Indian national aboard a Singapore Airlines flight has been jailed for three weeks and fined 1,000 dollars (546 US) for unruly behaviour, court documents showed today. Suman Barua, 41, punched a television monitor located on the front of his seat, was unruly and complained loudly about the service during the flight from Paris to Singapore earlier this month. Court documents showed the passenger had drunk too much and was annoying other passengers. He was further enraged that the cabin crew stopped serving him alchohol. Despite a verbal warning, he continued to behave in an unruly manner. A final written warning signed by the captain was served on him, but an angry Barua scribbled something and threw the letter on the floor. Barua, who was supposed to be on transit in Singapore en route to Kolkata, will spend three weeks in jail for "mischief" after a district judge passed sentence yesterday. He was also fined for being drunk and ordered to pay the airline 4,700 dollars in compensation for the damaged television monitor. Last December, a 22-year-old Indian national who was drunk and abusive on a Singapore Airlines flight on Christmas Day was jailed for more than three months. (AFP) |
|
Pak flayed for not granting visas to Indian journalists NEW YORK, Mar 27: A US press watchdog has flayed the Pakistan Government for not granting visas to Indian journalists to cover events in the country and said its intelligence agency ISI and fundamentalist religious groups continue to harass local as well as foreign scribes. The unofficial ban on virtually all journalists of Indian origin remained in place despite international protests. Indian journalists complained that their visa applications languished indefinitely, the committee to protect journalists, in a report released yesterday, said. Quoting the daily ‘The News’, it said the Government was "not issuing visas to Indian journalists, saying that they have nothing to report... Except anti-Pakistan stories." Even the handful of ethnic Indians who did manage to get visas to Pakistan were subject to intense scrutiny. Rajiv Chandrasekaran, a US citizen who works for ‘The Washington Post’, reported from Pakistan for a couple of months without serious incident. But when his visa came up for renewal toward the end of November, authorities simply delayed processing it. When the visa expired, officials ordered him out of country. It said the "unchecked power" of the military Government tended to encourage self-censorship in Pakistani press. Even under democratic rule, journalists had complained of routine surveillance and harassment by state intelligence agencies, especially the "feared" ISI, controlled by the Pakistani Army. "The ISI operates with considerable independence, giving rise to speculation that its domestic and foreign policy agenda might not be entirely aligned with that of the Musharraf Government," it said. (PTI) |
|
Musharraf rules
out abandoning parliamenatry ISLAMABAD, Mar 27: Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf has sought to dismiss the speculation that he was trying to legitimise his stay in power through a referendum and said he has no plan to switch to presidential or any other form of Government. Musharraf said parliamentary democracy as envisaged in the 1973 constitution would be safeguarded and no move is under consideration at any level to switch to presidential or any other form of Government in the country, a delegation of Awami National Party (ANP) and Sindh Democratic Alliance (SDA) told media last night after a meeting with the President. Musharraf assured the delegation that he was not contemplating changes to the basic structure and spirit of the constitution which accorded primacy to parliamentary democracy but at the same expressed his determination to bring in balance of powers between President, Prime Minister and Chief of Army, they said. He, however, told them that his Government was empowered to make certain changes to the constitution as per the Supreme Court order, which conferred legitimacy to his regime and these changes would be shortly notified by the National Reconstruction Bureau (NRB). Speculation has been rife in the local as well as international media that Musharraf would hold a referendum to stay on as President but he has not officially announced it. ANP President Asfandyar Wali, whose party was part of the 15-party Alliance for Restoration of Democracy (ARD), which was agitating to put an end to military rule, told Musharraf that his party was opposed to any moves to hold a referendum. (PTI) |
|
India’s free press a strong pillar of democracy: CPJ NEW YORK, Mar 27: Agreeing that India’s free press is the strongest pillar of its democracy, a US-based press watchdog group, however, says journalists continued to face numerous challenges last year including physical threats, legal harassment and "more subtle" pressure by the Central Government. In a report released yesterday, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) also accused the security forces of assaulting journalists especially in Kashmir and northeast and local politicians across India using law enforcement agencies to "suppress" dissent. The committee said that criminal violence against journalists seemed to decrease last year, although one journalist was killed for his reporting on local corruption in Uttar Pradesh. Moolchand Yadav, a free-lance reporter who regularly contributed to Hindi-language dailies, including ‘Jansatta’ and ‘Punjab Kesari’, was shot dead in Jhansi after writing a series of exposis on land deals in the area. "In general, journalists working for the vernacular press and living outside major urban centers tend to be far more vulnerable to attack," it added. India’s own anti-terror war, it stresses, had not had any negative impact on the local press. The first draft of a proposed anti-terrorism ordinance included a controversial clause that would have made it a criminal offence not to provide the Government with "information about offences." (PTI) |
|
Masood Azhar shifted to
residence; house ISLAMABAD, Mar 27: The Pakistan Government has shifted Masood Azhar, the leader of the banned militant outfit Jaish-e-Mohammad, from a prison to his house in Bahawalpur in Punjab, which has been converted into a "sub-jail". Azhar has been shifted to his residence from Mianwali jail where he was under detention since December 25 last year. He was shifted on March 25 under heavy police escort, media reported here. He was shifted on the orders of Lahore High Court review Board, which had accepted his plea for shifting him from Mianwali Jail, the daily ‘The Dawn’ reported. Besides converting his house into a sub-jail, the Government would also pay Rs 10,000 to his family here as sustenance allowance, it said adding that heavy police force has been deployed outside his house. Also four police posts have been set up around the streets of his residence. Azhar was detained ahead of the ban clamped by President Pervez Musharraf on Jaish, Lashkar-e-Taiba and three other militant outfits on January 12. He was accused of delivering provocative speeches. He was reportedly arrested under Maintenance of Public Order, which empowered the police to detain him for 90 days without trial. Technically, Azhar’s detention under MPO came to an end on March 25 as he completed the mandatory 90 days’ detention. Detained Lashkar-e-Taiba chief Hafiz Mohammad Saeed has also been reportedly permitted to stay at home at the end of the 90 days’ detention period. There was no official comment on this so far. (PTI) |
|
Govt, LTTE agree to begin talks soon COLOMBO, Mar 27: LTTE has agreed to begin face-to-face negotiations with the Sri Lankan Government and the talks are expected to take place in May, a senior cabinet minister said today. "My expectation is that talks will approximately begin within six weeks, probably the first week of may," Cabinet Spokesman and Constitutional Affairs Minister G L Peiris told reporters here. LTTE leader V Prabhakaran and chief negotiator Anton Balasingham conveyed their willingness to begin talks to a Norwegian delegation that held discussions with them in the northern Vanni region yesterday. The Tamilnet website quoted Balasingham last night as saying LTTE wanted three pre-requisites to be fulfilled for the beginning of talks: Full implementation of the present cease-fire agreement between the parties, lifting of ban on LTTE and return of normalcy in the North and East. Asked about these conditions, Peiris said: "If that is so, we will consider them. Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe has already said he will consider anything other than a demand for a separate state." "Both sides feel the time is opportune for negotiations," he said. "We should first arrive at an agreement on the agenda, what should be discussed and the sequence, these are issues on which there should be some measure of agreement," Peiris said. Peiris said Balasingham’s return to the island was meant to facilitate internal discussions by LTTE and was entirely in accordance with law. The ltte negotiator landed two days ago directly in Vanni instead of passing through Colombo. "We had to give an opportunity to LTTE to prepare for discussions. As Dr Balasingham is handling the peace efforts on behalf of LTTE, it was desirable that he should be allowed to meet Prabhakaran to decide their negotiating position at the talks," the minister said. Norwegian Deputy Foreign Minister Vidar Helgesen is expected to visit Vanni next month to meet Prabhakaran. Further progress is expected thereafter, as by then the Jaffna-Kandy highway would be fully open to civilian traffic. The progress in implementation of the February truce accord figured prominently in yesterday’s discussions between Prabhakaran and the Norwegian delegation, which included special peace envoy Erik Solheim and Oslo’s Ambassador in Colombo, Jon Pestborg. Tamilnet said the LTTE leader expressed disappointment over the "delay" in implementing some of the terms and conditions - an apparent reference to the stretch of the highway between the forward defence locations of the two sides between Muhamalai in the Jaffna Peninsula and Kilinochchi in the Vanni remaining closed. LTTE says it is ready for its reopening, but believes the Government is delaying it. As per the agreement, modalities for its reopening should have been completed by March 24. However, the Norwegian facilitators said the Government had agreed that the highway, known as A9, the main land route linking the Jaffna Peninsula and Jaffna town with the Vanni mainland, would be opened formally on April eight. (PTI) |
|
|
