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| Musical lollipop LONDON, Nov 3: A high-tech musical lollipop is likely to feature on many children’s wish lists this Christmas ...more US mid-term polls may bring little change WASHINGTON, Nov 3: The campaign for the 1998 US mid-term elections wound up last evening with polls suggesting.. ..more Junoon facing music in Pakistan ISLAMABAD, Nov 3: Popular Pakistani music group Junoon continues to face the music for its controversial Indian tour recently with the Pakistan.....more China refutes rumour Lama plans visit BEIJING, Nov 3: China today refuted reports that the Dalai Lama was planning to visit a sacred mountain in China and travel to Beijing.......more |
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LTTE militants kill 7 soldiers COLOMBO, Nov 3: Seven soldiers were killed in an
ambush by Tamil Tiger militants early this morning in
Pulukanava near Ambara in Sri Lanka’s embattled
eastern province, military sources said........more SUVA,
Nov 3: India is to
reopen a diplomatic mission in Fiji eight years after it
was unceremoniously expelled from the country by the
post-coup military-backed regime of Ratu Sir Kamisese
Mara, officials said today.... ...more KARACHI, Nov 3: Police and Pakistan’s para-military rangers have launched a hunt for terrorists in the violence-hit city of Karachi, news reports and police sources said today.. ......more |
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India
vitiating atmosphere before talks, ISLAMABAD, Nov 3: As India and Pakistan prepared to hold official level talks from Thursday to resolve six identified bilateral issues, Islamabad today accused New Delhi of vitiating atmosphere for negotiations by resorting to intensification of firing across the Line of Control (LoC) and deploying an additional Army division in Kashmir Valley. Such unprovoked violation of LoC was part of a regular pattern of intimidating action by the Indian side prior to the commencement of talks between the two countries, Pakistan Foreign Ministry spokesman said here. He said the intensification of firing across LoC by Indian troops yesterday....Has once again caused heavy loss of life and damage to property in the Neelum Valley of Pakistan-occupied-Kashmir. The Indo-Pak bilateral talks on six outstanding issues, which the Foreign Secretaries of he two countries did not discuss during their meeting in IslaIabad last month, will be held in New Delhi from November 5 to 13. A delegation led by Pakistan’s water and power secretary Syed Shahid Hussain has already arrived in New Delhi to discuss the issue of wullar barrage and tulbul. A 12-member defence delegation will leave here tomorrow for the Indian capital to hold talks on the two crucial issues of Siachen and sir creek maritime dispute. An eight-member defence team, which also includes senior officials from Foreign Ministry, led by Defence Secretary Lt Gen Iftekhar Ali Khan will undertake negotiations on Siachen from November 6 to 9 while another four-member team led by additional rear Admiral Jamil Akhther will discuss sir Creek from November 7 to 10, a Defence Ministry release said here today. India and Pakistan resumed their bilateral talks process in October after a gap of 13 months following a meeting between the Prime Ministers of the two countries in New York on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly. The other issues that would be discussed between the two sides included terrorism and drug trafficking and economic and commercial co-operation and promotion of friendly exchanges in various fields. Apart from the Defence Secretary the Pakistani team for negotiating on Siachen includes additional Defence Secretary Major Gen Jamshed Malik, Director General of Military Operations, Maj Gen Syed Ali Hamid and Additional Secretary in Foreign Ministry Tariq Altaf. The other members of the team for sir Creek Maritime dispute are Surveyor General of Pakistan Maj Gen Mahboobul Muzafar, Director Military Operation Brig Nadeem Ahmed and Hydrographer Capt C D Bhatti. (PTI) |
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US mid-term polls may bring little change WASHINGTON, Nov 3: The campaign for the 1998 US mid-term elections wound up last evening with polls suggesting that democrats would not pay a major political price for the scandal surrounding President Bill Clinton. Other polls indicated that democrats had some slight momentum and could even shock their opponents with unexpected gains in today’s vote, which some have cast as a referendum on whether Clinton should be impeached but others see as a "seinfeld election"- about nothing. Thirty-four senate seats, 36 governorships and all 435 seats in the house of representatives are at stake in the election, as well as thousands of lesser offices at the state and county levels. The party holding the White House usually loses house seats in mid-term elections and especially in the sixth year of a presidency. But the campaign of 1998, long overshadowed by the personal scandal surrounding Clinton, could break the pattern. Republican National Committee chairman Jim Nicholson dismissed the polls and predicted more gains for his party. "I think we’ll pick up more seats in each category, and if we do, we’ll have the biggest majorities the Republican Party has had for 50 years", he said. (REUTERS) |
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| Musical lollipop LONDON, Nov 3: A high-tech musical lollipop is likely to feature on many children’s wish lists this Christmas. The toy looks like an ordinary lollipop but its plastic handle contains an electronic chip. At a lick of the lolly and the press of a button, the battery driven device begins to vibrate and to produce voices, sound effects and music. The toy, aimed at four to nine year olds, comes in six different versions, including guitar, saxophone, drums and special effects. The makers are now working on lollies with pop or film music. The musical lollipops are
already on sale in many toy shops for around eight pounds
(13 U.S. dollars) The Guardian newspaper estimated its
makers will achieve a five million pounds turnover by the
end of the year. (DPA) Other polls indicated that democrats had some slight momentum and could even shock their opponents with unexpected gains in today’s vote, which some have cast as a referendum on whether Clinton should be impeached but others see as a "seinfeld election"- about nothing. Thirty-four senate seats, 36 governorships and all 435 seats in the house of representatives are at stake in the election, as well as thousands of lesser offices at the state and county levels. The party holding the White House usually loses house seats in mid-term elections and especially in the sixth year of a presidency. But the campaign of 1998, long overshadowed by the personal scandal surrounding Clinton, could break the pattern. Republican National Committee chairman Jim Nicholson dismissed the polls and predicted more gains for his party. "I think we’ll
pick up more seats in each category, and if we do,
we’ll have the biggest majorities the Republican
Party has had for 50 years", he said. (REUTERS) Pakistani authorities recently issued letters to all commanding officers of cantonment areas directing that the band should not be allowed to perform within the garrison limits, media reports said, describing the remarks made by band members during their Indian tour as the reason behind the action. No time limit has been mentioned for the ban period on the three-member pop group which is already facing an enquiry by the Ministry of Culture for the comments made on the Indian television channels, the report said. Leading English daily Dawn said that when a pop concert promoter recently applied for organising a music show involving Junoon at the Lahore Defence Club, he was denied permission on the grounds of the recently imposed ban. Earlier, the Government, through its Ministry of Culture, asked members of the Junoon group to make deposition regarding comments made by them to the international media during their Indian tour in May. (PTI) |
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China refutes rumour Lama plans visit BEIJING, Nov 3: China today refuted reports that the Dalai Lama was planning to visit a sacred mountain in China and travel to Beijing for possible talks with Chinese leaders, and instead called on Tibet’s exiled spiritual leader to prove that he did not advocate independence of the Himalayan region. "There will be no such thing," Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhu Bangzao snapped when asked to respond to reports out of New Delhi that the Dalai Lama was planning to make a pilgrimage to the sacred Mount Wutai in China’s Shanxi province in December. Mr Zhu repeated that Beijing had certain channels of communication with the Dalai Lama, adding that those channels were operating smoothly. He railed against the Dalai Lama for continuing to advocate autonomy for the fervently Buddhist region internationally while talks with Beijing continued. "He should take concrete action to show that he has changed his mind and not propose independence of Tibet, and show that he is really willing to do something for the solidarity between the Tibetan people and the entire Chinese nation," Mr Zhu said. Yesterday, Samdhong Rinpoche, the speaker of the exiled Tibetan Parliament in India, indicated that the Dalai Lama had expressed an interest in visiting Mount Wutai at the end of the year. The Dalai Lama is scheduled to begin a ten-day visit to the United States tomorrow. (DPA) |
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LTTE militants kill 7 soldiers COLOMBO, Nov 3: Seven soldiers were killed in an ambush by Tamil Tiger militants early this morning in Pulukanava near Ambara in Sri Lanka’s embattled eastern province, military sources said. The sources said the soldiers were guarding farmers near a field when LTTE militants attacked them. In another incident, four people were injured when militants flung a grenade towards a police station in Eastern Batticaloa today. The injured included two policemen and two civilians. (UNI) |
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India to reopen embassy in Fiji SUVA, Nov 3: India is to reopen a diplomatic mission in Fiji eight years after it was unceremoniously expelled from the country by the post-coup military-backed regime of Ratu Sir Kamisese Mara, officials said today. A three person delegation from New Delhi headed by Bhaswati Mukherjee, joint secretary from the Ministry of External Affairs, arrived here this week to finalise arrangements for the re-opening of the embassy. Relations between Fiji and India, fractured in the military coups against Fiji’s Indian population in 1987 followed by what many saw as the persecution of the community, culminated in the expulsion of the embassy in May 1990. Ratu Mara’s Government severed ties with India and gave the embassy 24 hours to close because of what it regarded as interference by the Indian embassy in the Internal Affairs of Fiji where 43 per cent of the population were of Indian origin. Fiji was expelled from the Commonwealth following the second military coup of 1987 because of its racist policies. Subsequently the Indian veto kept Fiji out of the Commonwealth until last year when it was unanimously welcomed back foul studies have shown that potatoes make only small amount of the hepatitis antigen. Her group has selected a line that makes about 18 micrograms (a microgram is one-millionth of a gram) of antigen per gram of fresh potato tuber for the edible vaccine studies. She said scientists are working on methods to improve expression of the genes that will lead to production of more hepatitis b antigen in the potato. Her group is also working on genetically modified tomatoes containing the vaccines as tomatoes have shorter life cycles than a banana plant that takes a minimum of three years to bear fruit. Also, tomatoes need not be cooked like potatoes for consumption. (PTI) |
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