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| Bhutto fears
revolution in Pakistan KARACHI, Nov 1: Opposition leader Benazir Bhutto
said she feared Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s
Serbian leadership could tip Pakistan towards an Islamic
revolution...more BEIJING,
Nov 1: China and
India must share a better understanding and close
cultural ties between the people of the two countries,
Indian Ambassador to .. ..more NEW
DELHI, Nov 1: In
spite of recent U.S. hostility towards Indian science an
Indian space scientist has been nominated.....more UNITED NATIONS, Nov 1: United Nations was closely watching developments on the Iran-Afghanistan border where Tehran is holding its biggest war .......more |
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Iraq refuses to
budge, UN suspends activities From Dharam Shourie UNITED NATIONS,
Nov 1: Iraq today
remained defiant after the United Nations Security
Council unanimously condemned Baghdad’s decision to
end all cooperation with UN weapons inspectors calling it
a flagrant.......more BEIJING,
Nov 1: Exiled
Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama is likely to make
a conciliatory statement towards China during his US
visit next week to kick-start negotiations on the future
status of the Himalayan... ...more DUBAI,
Nov 1: Indian
Vice-President Krishan Kant has held talks with Turkish
Prime Minister Mesut Yilmaz on ways of strengthening
bilateral relations, Indian officials in Ankara said
today. ......more |
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Karachi witnesses ethnic violence KARACHI, Nov 1: Giant plumes of black smoke engulfed a troubled eastern neighbourhood in this violent port city today as activists of a Minority Ethnic Party and police clashed, said eyewitnesses and police. There were no immediate report of injuries. Scores of shops were set on fire and smouldering cars blocked roads as security troops fired tear gas shells to disperse demonstrators protesting the arrest of at least 200 of their activists, along with five top leaders. Supporters of the smaller Haqiqi faction of the former Mohajir Qami Movement (MQM) hurled stones at police, burned tires, blocked roads and fired automatic weapons in the congested Eastern Landhi neighbourhood to protest a police raid on a meeting at their party headquarters. The Haqiqi group is a splinter group of the Muttaheda Qami Movement (MQM), led by exiled leader Altaf Hussein. Demonstrations in Karachi today involved Haqiqi workers who accused the Government of arresting 200 of its supporters. The Government also arrested senior Haqiqi leaders, including the party vice-chairman Badar Iqbal and party officials, Younus Khan and Kamran Rizvi, they said. Mr Sharif is to hold a high level meeting in Karachi tomorrow to review the law and order situation. Meanwhile, Sindh Governor Moeenuddin Haider today announced a ban on all political rallies in Karachi. "We will not allow any political rally or public meeting in the city till the situation improves," Mr Haider, a retired army general running the province following the imposition of federal rule Friday. Mr Haider said it was premature to talk of holding fresh elections in the province whose Assembly has been paralysed by the imposition of federal rule. "We do not plan any big operation in Karachi but selective action to nab those involved in terrorist activities. Restoration of peace is the aim of my Government," the Governor said. "We will not accept the message the terrorists are sending through terrorism but will bring them to book. We will chase them," he said, adding that the Government had a list of 200 "hard-core" terrorists. (AP) |
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Fiji blasts nationalists for accept Indians AUCKLAND, Nov 01: Fiji Prime Minister Sitiveni Rabuka has hit out at pro-indigenus Fijian political parties for not accepting ethnic Indians as citizens, the Suva daily post reported today. Speaking at the annual meeting of his Soqosoqo Ni Vakavulewa Ni Taukei party Rabuka lashed the nationalists and the Christian Democratic alliance. "They are still looking for a scapegoat, someone to blame for the existence of some people in Fiji," he said. He said nationalist leader Sakeasi Butadroka used to blame Britain, which he said should have sent the Indians back to India. Others in the groups believed Indians had no right to be part of Fiji’s Government. Rabuka said the colonial days were long gone and the nation must accept Fiji as a multiracial country with people of different cultures, religions and polilitical beliefs. "We must accept all communities born here and those naturalised as citizens and regard Fiji as their home," Rabuka said. "We must take care of their interests and value their talents and capacities to contribute more in the future to the development and well-being of Fiji". "The Bible teaches us that we must love our neighbour as ourselves. That is what the new constitution is all about. I repeat, it is a Christian constitution." Rabuka said his party had to take the nationalists seriously as a potentially destabilising force in the country, because they continued to "use our methodist church to mislead the indigenous Fijians." (AFP) |
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| Bhutto fears revolution in
Pakistan KARACHI, Nov 1: Opposition leader Benazir Bhutto said she feared Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s Serbian leadership could tip Pakistan towards an Islamic revolution or military takeover. For the first time in my life I have this genuine cause of concern that if Sharif continues we can have either a clerical revolution or a junior officers’ Coup D’etat, Bhutto told Reuters television in an interview yesterday. Sharif’s Government says it has strengthened the supremacy of parliament since elections in February 1997 and has scoffed at talk of the army, which has ruled Pakistan for much of its independent history, taking over the reins of power again. Bhutto said Pakistan’s religious schools or madrassas, birthplace of Afghanistan’s Taliban movement and anti-India militants in Kashmir, could nurture an Islamic revolution in Pakistan itself. The madrassas have provided Mujahids (Islamic warriors to fight for the freedom of Afghanistan perhaps surreptitiously in Kashmir and it is these madrassas who will capitalise on people’s anger to begin an armed uprising, she said. The suspension of an International Monetary Fund programme sanctions imposed for nuclear tests in May, a balance of payments crunch and tense relations with the provinces all pointed to a deepening economic and political crisis, she said. (REUTERS) Nambiar calls for better Sino-Indian understanding BEIJING, Nov 1: China and India must share a better understanding and close cultural ties between the people of the two countries, Indian Ambassador to China Vijay K Nambiar has said. Speaking at a function here to mark the birth centenary of professor Tan Yun-Shan, one of the founders of the Sino-Indian cultural society in 1933, Nambiar said, despite being neighbours, there was little interaction between the people of India and China. In this modern-day world as well, in the face of the tremendous changes underway in both our countries, people in India and China still know far too little about each other, he said. Nambiar said it was very relevant to remember Prof Tan, not just for his scholarship but also for identifying the need for the two countries to learn ore about each other. He praised Prof tan for his contribution in promoting Sino-Indian relations and described him as the first cultural envoy from China to India, the land he called his second home. It is due to Prof Tan’s pioneering efforts that cultural interaction between our two ancient civilisations were reinvigorated, Nambiar said. A book on Sino-Indian relations, across the Himalayan gap, an Indian quest was also released at the function. (PTI) US institute confer ‘Man of the Year’ award for Indian scientist NEW DELHI, Nov 1: In spite of recent U.S. hostility towards Indian science an Indian space scientist has been nominated "Man-of-the Year," by the prestigious American Biographical Institute. Prof. Pritiranjan Sengupta was given the award for his "outstanding accomplishments to date and the noble example he has set for his peers and entire community," the citation from the world’s foremost biographical institute said. A cousin of nobel prize winning economist Amartya Sen, Prof. Sengupta also ISA product of Calcutta’s Presidency College where the two were contemporaries. He is the first Indian to win the award. The high-point of Prof. Sengupta’s distinguished career in science, management and education is what the scientific world knows as "Sengupta’s model of solar activity and radio communication." According to Prof. Sengupta that model answered a problem which long perplexed solar scientists - why the Sun’s corona is about 200 times hotter than the strata below it. Prof. Sengupta posited that while the sun’s gravity sucks all gas particles downwards, the ones with the greatest energy filter up and reach the corona. The model opened up a new area of high tech research in radio communication, solar physics, and in the rarefied area of energy flow through plasma. Though still a visiting professor at National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), Prof. Sengupta has been living a retired life in Delhi for the last three years but devotes time to consultancy on administration and education. Connected with education reform for more than 15 years, Prof. Sengupta developed a new approach to technical and professional education which is relevant to the current technology revolution. The Sengupta model continues to be discussed and cited by the UNESCO, World Bank and the Asian Development Bank and finds concrete expression in the North-Eastern Regional Institute of Science and Technology (NERIST) in Arunachal Pradesh which he founded and served as the first vice-chancellor. Four other technical universities funded by the World Bank or the ADB have been built on the basis of Prof. Sengupta’s model including one in Brazil and another in Algeria. A DSC (double doctorate) in Electronics and Electrical Communication Engineering from IIT, Kharagpur, he has served as professor at Harvard and Pennsylvania State Universities he is closely associated with Prof Van Allen of the Van Allen radiation belt fame. In 1988, Prof Sengupta was honoured with the prestigious International Grawmeyer Award for his contribution in the field of education. This was the first time that it went to an educationist outside the developed world. Apart from educational reform. Prof Sengupta is also in acknowledged World expert in information technology and is currently working on a project on human capital formation for information technology under the Department of Science and Technology (DST). (UNI) |
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| UN watching developments on
Iran-Afghanistan border UNITED NATIONS, Nov 1: United Nations was closely watching developments on the Iran-Afghanistan border where Tehran is holding its biggest war games involving 2,00,000 troops. Diplomats and UN officials are hoping that the relations between the countries, which are already in a bad shape, might not turn worse. Recently, the world body had deputed Lakhdar Brahimi to ease tensions between the two countries and the deputed envoy was instrumental in securing the release of 26 Iranians held by Talibans, who are in of most of the war-ravaged Afghanistan. The relations between the two deteriorated after Taliban fighters killed Iranian diplomats and a journalist when they took over Mazar-i-Sharif. Meanwhile, state-run Tehran radio said Iranian Infantry Forces and tanks broke through the advanced lines of a mock enemy at the start of major war games near the Afghan border. The forces will take part in the exercises, advanced under the light of flares and heavy Iranian artillery and missile barrage, the radio said yesterday. The operations were the first of four planned phases of th Zolfaqar-2 Manoeuvres which will reach their climax tomorrow, it added. Iran has said it has massed Army troops, revolutionary guards, paratroopers and commandos in the border provinces of Khorasan and Sistan and Baluchestan. DPA adds: Meanwhile, the Teheran Times Daily today reported that Afghan opposition leader, Ahmad Shah Massoud, has paid a brief visit to Iran shortly before planned manoeuvres by Iranian forces. "Ahmad Shah Massoud made a flying visit to Iran today ... And it was important," the daily quoted informed official sources as saying. The daily said Mr Massoud, Defence Minister of the ousted Government of President Burhaneddin Rabbani and commander of the anti-Taliban military alliance, met with Iran’s Mohammad Ali Taherian, currently reponsible for Afghan affairs. The daily also reported that Mr Rabbani is currently in Germany for medical treatment. (DPA) |
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| Iraq refuses to budge, UN
suspends activities From Dharam Shourie UNITED NATIONS, Nov 1: Iraq today remained defiant after the United Nations Security Council unanimously condemned Baghdad’s decision to end all cooperation with UN weapons inspectors calling it a flagrant violation and suspended all activities. UN arms inspectors stationed in Baghdad said they were advised by chairman of UNSCOM Richard Butler today not to go out for inspection until further notice. The UN Security Council which held a rare session yesterday condemned Baghdad for its decision to ban further inspection of suspected sites of weapons of mass destruction. US denounced the Iraqi action and said All options for dealing with Baghdad remained open. However, officials in Washington refused to comment whether US was considering a military option against Baghdad. We view this as a very serious matter, National Security Council spokesman David Leavy said after a meeting which was attended by Secretary of State Madeliene Albright, National Security Advisor Sandy Berger, CIA Director George Tenet and White House Chief of Staff John Podesta. Meanwhile, Iraq continued to remain defiant even after facing world wide condemnation over the decision of suspending all cooperation with the UN arms inspectors and monitors until the sanctions against baghdad were reviewed by the Security Council and inspection team dropped members who were US siesm. The United Nations, after a 90-minute meeting, said the members condemned the Iraqi move of barring the UN inspectors from further inspection. The outgoing President of the Council Jeremy Greenstock of Britain said the council considered the Iraqi decision as a flagrant violation of UN resolutions and also of the Memorandum of Understanding signed between Baghdad and Secretary General Kofi Annan. He said Iraq must rescind the decision immediately and resume immediate, complete and unconditional cooperation with the special commission charged with eliminating Iraqi weapons of mass destruction and International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). The council reaffirmed its decision to review the sanctions once Iraq resumes cooperation but again did not promise easing them as is being demanded by Baghdad. Acting US Ambassador Peter Burleigh assumed the presidency today and he now will be responsible for guiding the council. Coming at a time when the US President Bill Clinton is facing impeachment and elections, the latest Iraqi move is seen here as a purported challenge to Washington which has never missed an occasion to punish Iraq for violating the UN sanctions. Iraq, however, said the investigations by IAEA for Baghdad’s suspected nuclear capability could continue and the UN inspectors in Baghdad were not being expelled. |
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| DalaI Lama likely to make
conciliatory statement in US BEIJING, Nov 1: Exiled Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama is likely to make a conciliatory statement towards China during his US visit next week to kick-start negotiations on the future status of the Himalayan region, diplomatic sources said here. The eagerly-awaited statement by the Dalai Lama may acknowledge Chinese sovereignty over Tibet and recognition of Taiwan as a province of China, they said. Since China is unlikely to make concessions on the two issues, the Tibetan leader has no other option but to acknowledge Beijings wishes, the sources told. However, it remains to be seen what Beijing will offer the Tibetan religious leader since a Communist Party-led Government has been firmly established in Lhasa, they said. The Dalai Lama, who fled his Himalayan homeland to India on exile after a failed 1959 armed uprising against Chinese Communist rule, has already clarified that he now seeks greater autonomy — not independence — for Tibet. Once the Dalai Lama make the reconciliatory statement, Beijing is expected to invite him for negotiations on greater autonomy for Tibet, the sources said. China would like to resolve the Tibet issue before it gets complicated further with outside intervention, a Chinese expert said while hoping that the exiled Tibetan leader will show sincerity in his intentions. (PTI) |
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