BEIJING, Dec 8: Buoyed by the results of Taiwan’s recent local polls ....more

Foreign currency
accounts embarrass
Pak Government

ISLAMABAD, Dec 8: The freezing of the foreign currency accounts has pushed the...more

150 injured in clashes

DHAKA, Dec 8: Police fired rubber bullets and tear....more

Use of RDX to attract
life imprisonment

NEW DELHI, Dec 8: A bill seeking to provide for life imprisonment to those ...more

China executes 3 for
drug smuggling

BEIJING, Dec 8: Three men were executed in Southern China....more

BANGALORE, Dec 8: Japan’s Ambassador to India, Hiroshi Hirabayashi has said that his country....more

No link between
Kashmir and CTBT,
says Sharif

ISLAMABAD, Dec 8: In a volte face, Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has backtracked from......more

Nawaz Sharif

World’s tallest tower
gets goahead in Melbourne

MELBOURNE, Dec 8: What is being billed as the world’s tallest tower may be going up in Melbourne.....more

China urges early reunification talks with Taiwan

BEIJING, Dec 8: Buoyed by the results of Taiwan’s recent local polls that dealt a stinging blow to the pro-independence opposition, China has called for early reunification talks with Taiwan.

In a speech made public days after the pols, which saw an emphatic victory for the ruling Kuomintang party, a Chinese official urged Taiwanese authorities to open cross-straits political talks as soon as possible.

The issue of China’s reunification should not be postponed indefinitely, Xinhua news agency quoted Vice Chairman of the National Committee of the Chinese people’s political consultative conference Zhang Kehui as saying.

Taiwan should value the progress made in recent talks between top negotiators of both sides and join hands in striving for early reunification, Kehui said. Meanwhile, the Hong Kong-based South China morning post quoted a Chinese official saying that the outcome of Saturday’s polls were a vindication of Beijing’s policies on Taiwan.

In the first reaction to the verdict, an official of the state council’s Taiwan affairs office said: We fully respect our Taiwan compatriots’ lifestyle and their wish and right to run their own affairs, while opposing forces pursuing splittist activities in the name of democracy.

China heaved an enormous sigh of relief after the defeat of incumbent mayor Chen Shui-Bian in Taipei, a stronghold of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), advocating independence for Taiwan, the paper said. (PTI)

Foreign currency accounts embarrass Pak Govt

ISLAMABAD, Dec 8: The freezing of the foreign currency accounts has pushed the Nawaz Sharif Government in Pakistan into an embarrassing position when it had to disown the public statement of a senior Cabinet Minister to justify the act in a court of law.

A full bench of the Lahore High Court yesterday observed that the Government’s decision to freeze the foreign current accounts in the country in the wake of May nuclear blasts could be set aside if malafide intention was proved.

The bench was hearing a number of petitions challenging the Government’s May 28 order by which foreign currency accounts of resident and Non-Resident Pakistanis with a total sum of around 11 billion US dollars were frozen on the ground of public interest after the imposition of emergency.

Arguing that there was no public interest involved in the freezing of the accounts, the petitioners alleged it was a malafide exercise of power aimed at legalising a wrongful act.

The petitioner’s counsel reproduced a public statement of then Finance Minister and the current Foreign Minister, Sartaj Aziz, where he had candidly stated that, deposits were misspent on debt servicing and imports, partly by the first Nawaz Sharif Government but mostly by the Benazir Bhutto Government to the extent that when the PML assumed power for the second time in February, it found only 200 million US dollars in foreign currency deposits. (PTI)

150 injured in clashes

DHAKA, Dec 8: Police fired rubber bullets and tear gas to scatter Islamic extremists who attacked development workers for helping poor village women start businesses, officials said today.

At least 150 people were injured yesterday in Brahmmanbaria, 80 km east of Dhaka, as hundreds of women who receive loans from private development agencies marched in support of the programmes. The extremists say Muslim women should not leave their homes to work.

Another 60 people were injured on Sunday when police used batons to disperse development workers trying to hold a rally in the town’s soccer stadium. Authorities had banned the rally after extremists threatened to attack the demonstrators.

"We will not bow to the pressure of the fundamentalists. Our programmes to help the poor women will continue," Kazi Farooq Ahmed, President of the Association of Development Agencies in Bangladesh, said in a telephone interview.

The Association comprises the country’s more than 1,000 agencies that provide jobs, education and health care to village women with funds from Western countries.

Unable to hold their rally, the demonstrators marched to showcase their programmes that help more than four million women start businesses such as running grocery stores with loans as small as 4,000 takas (100 dollars). Scores of Islamic extremists armed with iron rods and homemade fire crackers attacked the procession, a police official said in a telephone interview.

The attackers from the town’s Islamic schools also torched offices of some development agencies and looted stores, the police official said. (AP)

Use of RDX to attract life imprisonment

NEW DELHI, Dec 8: A bill seeking to provide for life imprisonment to those convicted of offences involving the use of lethal explosives like RDX and remote control devices was introduced by the Government in the Lok Sabha today.

The bill, introduced by Home Minister L K Advani, seeks to put all lethal explosives including RDX, Penta Erythritol Tetra Nitrate (PETN), high melting explosives and remote control devices under special category explosive substances.

The Explosives Substances Act of 1908, which is sought be amended by the bill, currently provided for imprisonment ranging from five to 14 years for one’s involvement in the use of conventional leta exlosives.

The act does not make any distinction between offences involving use of conventional explosives and offences committed with more lethal explosives which have now been bracketed in the special category explosives substances.

The objects and reasons mentioned in the Explosive Substances (Amendment) Bill 1998 said that this measure was necessitated in view of the incidents of bomb blasts on a very large scale in some parts of the country particularly in Punjab, Jammu and Kashmir, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and the North-East causing huge loss to life and property. (PTI)

China executes 3 for drug smuggling

BEIJING, Dec 8: Three men were executed in Southern China for drug smuggling, the official Xinhua news agency reported.

Huang Shang, Xu Tao, and Lin he were convicted on September 6 in Shanwei, a city in Guangdong province, the report said. They were executed yesterday.

The three men were caught April 22 with narcotics totaling 4,354 kilograms (9,578 pounds) by marine police, Xinhua said.

It did not say what kind of narcotics were involved or give other details of the case.

Eleven accomplices received suspended death sentences, life prison terms or lesser punishments, Xinhua said. (AP)

Japan optimistic about India signing CTBT

BANGALORE, Dec 8: Japan’s Ambassador to India, Hiroshi Hirabayashi has said that his country was optimistic that India would sign CTBT by September next.

Participating in an interactive session organised by the Greater Mysore Chamber of Commerce and Industry (GMCI) here yesterday, he said Japan had taken note of Indian premier, A B Vajpayee’s statement that the country was committed to nuclear non-proliferation, no first use of nuclear weapons nd disarmament.

Hirabayashi underlined the need for Japan, India and China to work together for best management on nuclear non-proliferation, disarmament without sacrificing bilateral relations.

He further noted that cultural cooperation between the three countries should not suffer for the sake of nuclear tests, while referring to Pokhran tests by India.

He exhorted India to dispell doubts of Japan and make attempts to narrow down differences to improve the present strained relationship between the two countries in the aftermath of nuke tests utilising the on-going bilateral talks.

Hirabayashi said secretarial level talks between the two countries would resume soon in this regard. (PTI)

No link between Kashmir and CTBT, says Sharif

ISLAMABAD, Dec 8: In a volte face, Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has backtracked from his earlier reported stand linking resolution of Kashmir issue with signing of CTBT as the opposition charged him with entering into a secret deal with the US on nuclear issues.

We have not said anything leading to that presumption, Sharif told the Urdu daily, Jang, as he arrived in London after wrapping up his disappointing tour of the US.

I do not know how this linkage idea came into being, who asked this question and who answered it that there is a link between the two, Sharif said and went on to clarify that since the signing of the CTBT is directly linked to the country’s vital interests, any decision in this regard will be taken by Pakistan strictly as a sovereign state and that these interests would not be compromised any way.

Sharif’s comments came as a surprise here as earlier the media ad widely reported his comments after the much-hyped meeting with President Bill Clinton that Pakistan would not sign CTBT unless Kashmir issue is resolved.

Nevertheless, the US had rejected Pakistan’s demand for mediation between India and Pakistan for resolving the Kashmir issue and also for lifting rest of sanctions unless Pakistan takes some concrete steps towards non-proliferation.

Sharif, however, reiterated in London that Pakistan wants the US to play a mediatory role on the Kashmir issue insisting that India and Pakistan could never solve any bilateral problem without a third party mediation. (PTI)

World’s tallest tower gets go-ahead in Melbourne

MELBOURNE, Dec 8: What is being billed as the world’s tallest tower may be going up in Melbourne.

Victorian State Premier Jeff Kennett announced yesterday that the Grollo tower had won the bid for the docklands site on Melbourne’s Western fringe.

He said the Grollo group had four months to prove its financial capacity and to satisfy conditions set by the docklands authority.

The 1,837-foot tower, estimated to cost up to 1.5 billion dollars offices. (AP)