WASHINGTON, Dec 27: The next round of talks between India and the U.S. on proliferation and disarmament is expected to end inconclusively as the earlier rounds, unless Washington shows more flexibility in accommodating New Delhi’s security ...more

China’s leading nuclear
scientist passes away

BEIJING, Dec 27: China’s leading nuclear scientist and the founding father of the communist giant’s secretive nuclear programme, Wang Ganchang, has passed away, official media said today. Wang, 91, who passed away on...more

Iraq threatens to shoot down US monitoring flights

DUBAI, Dec 27: Iraq has threatened to shoot down US and British jets patrolling the no-fly zones set up after the 1991 Gulf war purportedly to protect the kurds in the North and Shiite Muslims in the South....more

US groups want Tibet’s antelope added to endangered species list

WASHINGTON, Dec 27: Environmentalists plan to urge the US Government to add an antelope found only in the remote Himalayan high..more

UNITED NATIONS, Dec 27: In its ups and downs this year, United Nations received more setbacks than success in its peace-making and.....more

12 Tamil tigers
feared killed

VAVUNIYA (SRI LANKA), Dec 27: A motorboat carrying 12 Tamil tiger rebels, including two top ranking local guerrilla ....more

Founder of China’s
nuclear programme
passes away

BEIJING, Dec 27: Mr Wang Ganchang, the scientist credited with founding China’s atomic bomb programme...more

China commemorates
105th anniversary
of Mao’s birth
BEIJING, Dec 27: China marked the 105th anniversary of the birth of late revolutionary leader Mao Tse-Tung today with the release of books,.....more

Students protest
at Dhaka Varsity

DHAKA, Dec 27: Hundreds of students at Dhaka University staged marches today in protest at alleged sexual abuse by teachers, witnesses said...more

Next round of Indo-US talks to end inconclusively: Analysts

WASHINGTON, Dec 27:The next round of talks between India and the U.S. on proliferation and disarmament is expected to end inconclusively as the earlier rounds, unless Washington shows more flexibility in accommodating New Delhi’s security concerns, analysts here said.

Unless there is a sea change in the U.S. attitude towards India, the talks, to be held sometime in the second half of January, will be a polite reiteration of two countries’ well known positions on the NPT and the CTBT, they said.

They said that both sides will firmly agree to disagree and decide to continue negotiations that began in the aftermath of India’s May nuclear test, which Washington said endangered regional security and upset proliferation goals.

Although India has indicated its willingness to sign the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT) and the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), provided its security concerns vis-a-vis China are addressed, the U.S. insists New Delhi roll back its nuclear and missiles programme.

With both sides adamantly sticking to their respective positions, several round of talks between key interlocutors have so far failed to yield any results.

The sixth round of talks in Rome last month concluded with both sides agreeing that the talks were constructive and would facilitate further progress in establishing the positive environment both seek.

While the Indian side said there was no change in their position on the CTBT, the U.S. side, which has been asking India to speedily and unconditionally sign it, described the circumstances that would enable the two countries to transcend difficulties as currently exist.

Analysts cited several reasons why they expected the talks to fail. They said, the U.S. is not reconciled to India as a nuclear power. It still defers, due to long habit, to Pakistani claims to be treated as India’s equal.

As the sole superpower, the U.S. feels that if India with its independent policies becomes a strong, nuclear and missile armed nuclear power, it will undermine U.S. freedom of action.

U.S. Strategy requires, the continued possession of nuclear weapons and the right of first use against any third world country which threatens its interests with weapons of mass destruction.

The Clinton administration, analysts said, has also become a prisoner of its own rhetoric. It has convinced its public that India cannot be allowed to retain nuclear weapons and missiles. A complete-turn-around in the position at this juncture can raise eyebrows.

Despite all evidence to the contrary, the U.S. has given the impression that India will sign the CTBT unconditionally. It is not willing to give India what it wants as quid pro quo, namely access to U.S. high technology in sensitive areas and equal treatment with China, a non-democratic power, they said. (PTI)

China’s leading nuclear scientist passes away

BEIJING, Dec 27: China’s leading nuclear scientist and the founding father of the communist giant’s secretive nuclear programme, Wang Ganchang, has passed away, official media said today.

Wang, 91, who passed away on December 10, was buried with full state honours at Beijing’s Babaoshan Cemetery for revolutionary heroes on Friday, Xinhua News Agency said.

Wang was an outstanding representative among our nation’s scientists. His passing is a great loss to atomic research in our country and the world, it said.

Top leaders, including President and Communist Party General Secretary Jiang Zemin, Chairman of the National Peoples Congress Li Peng and Premier Zhu Rongji condoled his death, it said.

A native of East China’s Jiangsu province, Wang, received a doctorate from Berlin University in 1933. Upon his return home in 1934, he helped establish China’s nuclear physics research programme.

Ranked among the world’s leading nuclear scientists, he is credited with several significant breakthroughs in atomic bomb, hydrogen-bomb theory and nuclear weapons research, Xinhua said.

The people’s daily, the mouthpiece of the ruling Communist Party, lauded wang as the "founding father" of China’s highly-developed nuclear weapons programme.

In an academic carrier spanning over 70 years, Wang trained three generations of scientists, among them Nobel Prize winner Li Zhengdao, Xinhua said. (PTI)

Iraq threatens to shoot down US monitoring flights

DUBAI, Dec 27: Iraq has threatened to shoot down US and British jets patrolling the no-fly zones set up after the 1991 Gulf war purportedly to protect the kurds in the North and Shiite Muslims in the South from Iraqi air attacks.

We say frankly now, that any violation of Iraqi airspace will be met by Iraqi fire, Iraqi Vice President Taha Yasin Ramadan said in an interview yesterday on the pro-Iraq Qatari television Netwoka-Jazeera.

The network, which was granted taped interviews of President Saddam Hussein during the US airstrikes on Iraq last week, broadcast Ramadan’s statement a few hours after Iraq said its anti-aircraft guns had repulsed weemy warplanes.

Iraq’s latest warning could further add fuel to the fire raging in the Gulf after the US and Britain jointly launched an aerial onslaught on Baghdad for allegedly not cooperating with UN Arms Inspectors.

Both America and Britain can ill afford to ignore Saddam’s warnings as anti-aircraft fire reaching out to 3000 metres may not be enough to threaten their flights from Kuwait and Saudi Arabia but missiles could be dangerous.

Enemy warplanes attacked an Irai air defence installation at around 11:35 am (1405 Ist). Iraqi gunners responded, forcing them to ditch their bombs blindly before they continued on their way, Official INA News Agency said.

A US military spokesman later confirmed that there had been an accident over Iraq. (PTI)

US groups want Tibet’s antelope added to
endangered species list

WASHINGTON, Dec 27: Environmentalists plan to urge the US Government to add an antelope found only in the remote Himalayan high plains of China and Tibet to its endangered species list so as to help stop the global trade in the animal’s fur.

The antelope, known as Chiru, is under increasing risk of extinction by poachers because of its fine fur, known as Shatoosh, that sells for thousands of dollars in high-fashion boutiques in Europe and the United States, conservationists say.

The New York-headquartered wildlife conservation society and the Tibetan plateau project of the California-based earth island institute plan to petition the US fish and wildlife service to place the threatened animal on the US endangered species list, which would make trade in its prized fur a federal crime.

"Addition of the Tibetan antelope to the endangered species list would give enforcement authorities additional mechanisms to prosecute Shatoosh Director of Tibetan Plateau Project.

Only about 50,000 to 75,000 of the antelopes remain from the more than one million that existed several decades ago, according to the Chinese Government and conservation groups.

Although poaching and trade in Shatoosh are illegal under Chinese law and the UN Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES), the high price paid for the wool encourages the trade and lures poachers, environmentalists say.

John brooks, a special agent of the fish and wildlife service’s division of law enforcement, does not think adding the animal to the US list will increase the authority his agency has over trade in the wool.

"The same penalties apply under cites as under the United States endangered Species Act, so it does not make any difference to me," Brooks says. "But adding it to the list does add prestige and may also make it a little easier to present in a US court because it would be covered under US law, besides international law."

"Because so much profit is to be made from Shatoosh, authorities worldwide are finding the existing laws very difficult to enforce, says George Schaller, science director of the Wildlife Conservation Society.

"With Chiru wool now a lucrative commodity, the animals are being relentlessly hunted," says Schaller, who has studied the wildlife of Tibet for more than 10 years. "Chiru cannot long endure such unrestrained killing. If present trends continue, the species will survive as mere scattered remnants."

Nature reserves and increased patrols by game wardens have failed to stop illegal hunting and the antelope herds are dwindling, according to China’s official Xinhua News Agency. While conservation groups previously estimated that between 2,000 and 4,000 antelopes were illegally shot each year, Chinese forestry officials estimate that the amount has increased in recent years to 20,000.

"Since the end of the 1980s, the Tibetan antelope population has been declining sharply because of large-scale hunting," Xinhua said. "They are now rarely seen, even in many places that used to be the Tibetan antelope’s major habitats, and the animal is now on the edge of extinction."

According to an investigative study published last year by the Wildlife Protection Society of India, a few herds of not more than 200 can be found in Ladakh in Northern India. In China and Tibet, there are a few herds of 2,000 or so animals - a greatly depleted figure compared to groups numbering 20,000 in the 1940s, says the report.

The Shatoosh wool is removed by shearing or combing the hides of dead Chiru. A full grown animal yields about 125 to 150 grammes of wool. After the wool is shorn from the hides of slaughtered antelope, it is smuggled from Tibet into India and Nepal, where it is made into scarves and shawls. In these regions, Shatoosh has been worn by royalty for centuries.

The word ‘Shatoosh’ is a combination of ‘Shah’ or king and ‘Tush’ or wool - the king of wool.

The bulk of Shatoosh, according to investigations conducted by the Wildlife Society of India, is smuggled into Kashmir through Nepal’s borders. Since customs authorities’ know little or nothing about the wool, smugglers usually have no problem getting the Shatoosh across the border. Often, it is easily passed off as pashmina, the wool of pashmina goats that are shorn for trade by Tibetan nomads in the high Himalayas.

The wool is often bartered by smugglers from Tibet for high-priced parts of endangered tigers used in traditional Chinese medicine, says the report. Once raw Shatoosh reaches India, it is transported by land, rail or air by a network of specialised smugglers to Srinagar in Jammu and Kashmir, either directly or via Delhi, where it is sold to Kashmiri traders, says the organisation. The wool is spun and woven in srinagar and the shawls are then shipped to shops throughout India and to fashion outlets worldwide.

In India, shawls sell for 2,000 dollars each or more. They can fetch far more in the United States and Europe - sometimes selling for as much as 10,000-30,000 dollars, according to the Wildlife Protection Society. The industry’s total output is unknown.

Police have seized shawls and scarves in the United States, Canada, Italy, Britain and France, as well as in major Indian cities, Nepal, China and Hong Kong. Despite these seizures, says lowe of the Tibetan plateau project, few violators have been successfully prosecuted under national or international laws.

In May, 1998, police in New Delhi working with the World Protection Society of India on a sting operation seized 46 Shatoosh shawls worth almost 250,000 dollars.

"This demonstrates that renewed efforts are required worldwide to stop the black market Shatoosh trade," says Lowe. He also criticises fashion magazines in the United States - such as harper’s bazar and elle which advertise shatoosh as a luxury item, without speaking of the endangered antelope.

"The fashion press needs to act more responsibly to inform consumers that Shatoosh is internationally designated contraband that is contributing to the decimation of an endangered species," he says. (IPS)

Downs shadow ups in UN peace-keeping efforts

UNITED NATIONS, Dec 27: In its ups and downs this year, United Nations received more setbacks than success in its peace-making and peace-keeping operations.

While endorsing its humanitarian efforts, the year witnessed discussions on whether UN should continue with the policy of less intervention in matters of peace and security in the next millennium.

In the case of nuclear tests, reactions of the UN members, majority of who were opposed to nuclear tests, to the May nuclear tests by India and Pakistan was unexpectedly mild after the security council passed a resolution deploring them.

Most of the members wanted the five nuclear weapons powers to take steps to eliminate their arsenals. And that was the reason for the resolutions deploring the South Asian tests.

Indian resolution asking the nuclear weapons powers to take steps to prevent possibility of an accidental atomic war and another one calling for elimination of nuclear arms easily got through both at the International Security Committee and the General Assembly.

Angola was marred completely by violence as the year progressed, Afghanistan continued to be in throes of factional war despite prolonged efforts, greats lakes region in Africa was as badly off as in the beginning and Congo defied solution.

East timor was no nearer resolution, Kosovo warring parties were defying even American efforts backed by NATO’s might and in Bosnia sure how the parties would behave once international force was withdrawn or whether it would be pulled back in the foreseeable future at all.

Iraq was a case study in itself, having thrown out United Nations Weapons Inspectors and the American-British air strikes that followed with its future still clouded in uncertainty as the year moved to a close.

Russia, China and, to some extent, France opposed the air strikes and appeared to be taking a stand against the United States but how far they would succeed, as both Beijing an Moscow need Washington, is yet unclear. Most diplomats say after their fretting and fuming, the American view will prevail as it had happened in earlier occasions.

However, they expect some easing of the eight-year-old sanctions and establishment of a monitoring regime in some form or the other.

The world body is still trying to get Libya handover the two suspects in the decade-old pan passenger jetliner bombing over lockerbie, Scotland, to netherlands for trial by Scottish judges. Secretary-General Kofi Annan made a personal visit to tripoli but without any visible result.

With donors reluctant to contribute troops or equipment in view of the world body’s failure to pay to the contributing countries for the services because of cash crunch, its peace keeping operations have come under severe strain. (PTI)

12 Tamil tigers feared killed

VAVUNIYA (SRI LANKA), Dec 27: A motorboat carrying 12 Tamil tiger rebels, including two top ranking local guerrilla leaders, capsised in the sea after an accident, rebel radio has said.

The voice of tigers radio monitored here city of Saed yesterday that two lieutenant colonels were among the dead. It gave no other details and did not say when or exactly where the accident took place.

Military officials here, 210 km North of Colombo, said explosives being carried by the rebels may have exploded prematurely. The rebels often use boats to attack Sri Lankan navy positions.

The rebels are fighting for a separate homeland in the North and east of Sri Lanka, accusing the Sinhalese majority of oppressing the Tamil minority.

While not all Tamils embrace the rebels’ extreme solution, many feel they are denied opportunity by the Sinhalese, who dominate the Government and military. The Government denies the charge and says Tamils have equal rights. (AP)

Founder of China’s nuclear programme passes away

BEIJING, Dec 27: Mr Wang Ganchang, the scientist credited with founding China’s atomic bomb programme, has died of an unspecified illness in Beijing, state-run media reported today. He was 90.

The state-run Xinhua News Agency reported that Mr Wang died on December 10 and was cremated yesterday at the Babaoshan Cemetery here, the final resting place of many of China’s revolutionary heroes.

A native of Eastern Jiangsu province, Mr Wang was graduated from Elite Tsinghua University in 1929 and earned a doctorate from Berlin University in 1933. Returning to China the following year, he helped establish China’s nuclear research programme.

Mr Wang worked as a research scientist at the University of California at Berkeley after World War II. He returned to China just before the communists took power in October, 1949.

Working at a Government-run academy, Mr Wang oversaw the design and manufacture of China’s first atomic bomb.

A front-page report in today’s people’s daily, the newspaper of the Communist Party, lauded Mr Wang as the "founding father" of China’s nuclear weapons programme and noted that President Jiang Zemin and Premier Zhu Rongji, among many others, had sent condolences upon hearing of his illness and death.

"Wang Ganchang was an outstanding representative among our nation’s scientists. His passing is a great loss to atomic research in our country and the world," it said. (AP)