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Bill on death penalty LONDON, Dec 1: A bill seeking death penalty for those found guilty of manufacturing spurious drugs will be introduced in the Parliament during.....more More than a thousand dollars spent on dogs wedding SINGAPORE, Dec 1: Believed to be the first of its kind, two Singapore ladies spent more than 1,000 Singapore dollars on their dogs wedding, ..more Israel’s
hard men LONDON, Dec 1: Accusing Prime Minister Ariel Sharon of pushing the Jewish.....more UN
unveils new NEW YORK, Dec 1: A new United Nations initiative aimed at providing anti-retroviral.....more |
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Forgetful Cambodian finds petrol relatively cheap PHNOM PENH, Dec 1: A Cambodian who found he had forgotten his wallet after filling up his motorbike with petrol ended up paying for the three litres of ....more China
quake kills 10, BEIJING, Dec 1: An earthquake measuring 6.1 on the richter scale jolted China’s northwestern region of Xinjiang today killing at least 10 people and ....more At
least 11 Maoists KATHMANDU, Dec 1: At least 11 rebels were killed in the latest violence in . ....more Torture
rife in Uzbek JASLIK, UZBEKISTAN, Dec 1: Muzafar Avazov’s teeth were smashed and his fingernails ripped out by the time he died — but the head of the Uzbek ....more |
Bill on death penalty for spurious drugmakers to be tabled LONDON, Dec 1: A bill seeking death penalty for those found guilty of manufacturing spurious drugs will be introduced in the Parliament during the winter session of Parliament beginning tomorrow. "Government is introducing a bill in the winter session of Parliament beginning on Tuesday for death penalty to those found guilty of manufacturing spurious drugs. The draft for this has been prepared", Health Minister Sushma Swaraj told BBC Hindi special programme `Aapki Baath BBC Ke Saath’. "I think that those making spurious drugs are committing a crime greater than those committing murder. A murderer is responsible for ending the life of one person, those in this’s purious drugs thing are committing mass murder", Health Minister said, replying to listeners’ queries. "In this bill, we intend to make selling costly medicines also an offence. Rates, including all the taxes would have to be clearly displayed on the medicine," Swaraj said. Questioned about the shortage of doctors and declining health infrastructure in the country, Swaraj said, "we are planning to launch a new programme soon, in which private doctors would be integrated with the Government’s health care system to make a big network in the Government sector only. "This will be somewhat on the lines of different countries, who have General Practitioners (GPs), as the patients’ first point of contact," she added. "This will make the Government health care system into a big network to fulfil the needs of the people. Government plans to expand the health care system in the country in a big way, and details would be released soon", the Health Minister said. On the challenge face by AIDS virus, Swaraj said "now cure and prevention are going to be the policy on HIV/AIDS". "I have declared women, children below the age of 15 and those patients suffering fully from AIDS, will be provided anti-retroviral drugs in Government hospitals from April 1, 2004." To begin with one lakh patients per year will be given these and it would be increased in a phased manner. The cost of Rs 200 crore, will be met by the Government", the Health Minister said. "India has accepted the challenge of AIDS and we are probably the first country in the world which has drawn up a comprehensive cure policy of AIDS," Swaraj added. (PTI) |
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More than a thousand dollars spent on dogs wedding SINGAPORE, Dec 1: Believed to be the first of its kind, two Singapore ladies spent more than 1,000 Singapore dollars on their dogs wedding, according to media reports. The wedding had all the trappings of a usual wedding - it came with its own minister, a wedding certificate, cake and champagne, Channel News Asia reported today. Instead of exchanging rings, bruno and jingle exchanged collars. Linda Loh, owner of Bruno, admited that there were friends who thought she was crazy to marry the dogs. "My friends think the marriage is to breed them," she said adding, "it is not the case as personally we are against it." Burno has been sterilized. Jingle owner Evelyn Lee said the two dogs like to follow each other around. "They will play with each other. Bruno likes to lick jingle’s ear so they will be licking here and there. They won’t fight except chasing each other around, just playing." Even though Bruno and Jingle are married, they would not be living together. So it could be a dog’s life for them, after all, they would only get to see each other once a week. (UNI) |
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Israel’s hard men fight for peace LONDON, Dec 1: Accusing Prime Minister Ariel Sharon of pushing the Jewish state to the ‘edge of an abyss’, four former heads of the Israeli security service said they will either find peace or perish. Mr Avraham Shalom, Mr Yaakov Peri, Mr Carmi Gillon and Major General Ami Ayalon have fought the Palestinians with as much vigour as the PM, who commanded an armoured division in the 1967 six day war. They between them, served for 20 years at the head of shin bet, the nerve centre of the war on Palestinian militants, but have now changed tack to spearhead a new movement for peace more powerful than Israel has ever seen before, British newspaper the observer reported yesterday. Mr Shalom reportedly ordered the murder of two Palestinians who hijacked a bus and Major General Ayalon’s Command, shin bet, perfected the use of booby-trapped mobile phones for assassinations. He also fought arabs all his life, but three years of the intifada, is finally beginning to have an impact. Almost all Israeli public figures have done military service, but Ayalon, 58, devoted his life to it. At 18 he joined the naval commandos and rose to head the navy. After retiring, he led shin bet. ‘I am not a leftist, I have been involved in hundreds of military operations and killed many people. I have blood on my hands,’ he said. Ayalon launched a peace initiative with Sari Nusseibeih, head of Al-Quds, the Arab University in Jerusalem, which calls on both Israel and the Palestinian authority to adopt a policy of "two states for two peoples", based on the borders before 1967 when Israel captured the West Bank and Gaza. It is not the only peace initiative. In Switzerland, Israeli and Palestinian peace campaigners will sign the Geneva accords today, a prototype peace agreement. Ayalon says both initiatives undermine Sharon’s line that there is no Palestinian partner for peace. Only last month Lieutenant General Moshe Ya‘Alon, the Army Chief of Staff, told reporters the Government’s policy of repressing Palestinians was reducing Israel’s security, not enhancing it. Ayalon said, "deep in our society there is a revolution, a groundswell of opinion. Many Israeli generals are talking, the four heads of shin bet have spoken, there are peace plans being proposed. When you combine all this with the economic situation, it will soon add up to a tidal wave. If the politicians do not listen to what the people and the security establishment are saying, then there will be people in the streets demanding change.’’ Avraham Burg, a senior member of the opposition Labour Party, has warned that the Zionist dream of a Jewish state was in danger. "Israel, having ceased to care about the children of the Palestinians, should not be surprised when they come washed in hatred and blow themselves up in the centres of Israeli escapism," the newspaper quoting him said. Pointing that Israel was heading for an Abyss Avraham Shalom said, "if we do not turn away from adhering to the entire land of Israel including the West Bank and Gaza and begin to understand the other side, we will not get anywhere. We must, once and for all, admit there is another side, that it is suffering and that we are behaving disgracefully... If we don’t change this there will be nothing there.’’ Underpinning the fierce criticism of Sharon’s administration is the fear that Jews will become a minority in land controlled by Israel unless a Palestinian state is created. (UNI) |
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UN unveils new programme to combat AIDS NEW YORK, Dec 1: A new United Nations initiative aimed at providing anti-retroviral drugs to three million people in developing countries and those in transition by 2005 was unveiled today as part of world AIDS day. Titled ‘3/5 strategy’, the ambitious who and UN AIDS programme seeks to train tens of thousands of community health workers to support the delivery of medicines and for monitoring of millions suffering from HIV/AIDS in the worst affected countries which face chronic shortage of doctors and other medical staff. "Preventing and treating AIDS may be the toughest health assignment the world has ever faced, but it is also the most urgent," said Dr Lee Jong-Wook, Director-General of the World Health Organization. The lives of millions of people are at stake. This strategy demands massive and unconventional efforts to make sure they stay alive." "The 3 by 5 framework is a plan for action by a broad alliance of nations, institutions, and committed people, including those living with HIV/AIDS," said Dr Jack Chow, Assistant Director-General of who for HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria. "We urge all concerned to work to reach the 3 by 5 target as rapidly as possible." Reaching the 3 by 5 target will require substantial new funding for AIDS treatment from all sources - countries, donor Governments and multilateral funding agencies. Who has estimated that the extra funding required amounts to approximately 5.5 billion dollars over the next two years. "We know what to do but what we urgently need now are the resources to do it. We must waste no time in building strong alliances immediately to implement this strategy. Three million people are counting on it," lee said. The new strategy includes providing simplified and standardized tools to deliver antiretroviral therapy, an effective and reliable supply of medicines, rapid identification, dissemination and application of new knowledge and sustained support for the countries. It envisages creation of a global AIDS Medicine and Diagnostics Service (AMDS) which will ensure that poor countries have access to quality medicines and diagnostic tools at the best prices. The service, to be operated by who, UNICEF and other partners, will help countries to forecast and manage supply and delivery of necessary products for treatment and monitoring of AIDS. AMDS will include a medicine and diagnostic evaluation component which will ensure that manufacturers, products, procurement agencies and laboratories meet the international quality, safety and efficacy standards. The plan will create a new corps of health workers in every province of 34 heavily impacted countries but it is yet unclear whether sufficient funds would be available to make the new scheme a success. (PTI) |
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Forgetful Cambodian finds petrol relatively cheap PHNOM PENH, Dec 1: A Cambodian who found he had forgotten his wallet after filling up his motorbike with petrol ended up paying for the three litres of petrol with his nephew. The Kampuchea thmey (new Cambodia) newspaper said today. The nine-year-old, who it named as DY, had been on a trip with his uncle in March 2002 to try and track down his father in a nearby province in the war-scarred southeast Asian nation. However, their motorbike ran out of petrol before reaching their destination and, after filling up with three litres of gasoline from a roadside stall, the uncle realised he had no money. Eventually he convinced the old lady selling petrol to take his nephew as a guarantee he would return with the cash —about dollars the paper said. Nearly two years later, she is still waiting — but has opted to keep the youngster. "I have decided to take care of him and raise him as my own grandson," she told the paper. Despite a huge UN-backed reconstruction effort in the early 1990s, child rights remain a distant dream in Cambodia where society still bears the scars of decades of civil war, including the Khmer rogue genocide of the 1970s. (AGENCIES) |
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China quake kills 10, injures 34 in northwest BEIJING, Dec 1: An earthquake measuring 6.1 on the richter scale jolted China’s northwestern region of Xinjiang today killing at least 10 people and destroying 700 homes, state media and the Xinjiang Seismological Bureau said. The tremor hit Zhaosu County, on the border with Kazakhstan, at 9:38 AM. (0708 Hrs ist), official Dai Xiaomin told . The official Xinhua News Agency said the quake also injured 34 people, toppled 700 homes and damaged another 140. Earthquakes are common in the rugged northwestern Chinese region. In February, an earthquake measuring 6.8 on the richter scale struck Xinjiang near the silk road oasis of Kashgar, killing nearly 300 people and injuring more than 4,000. A tremor measuring 5.8 on the richter scale killed one person and injured three in May. (AGENCIES) |
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At least 11 Maoists killed in latest fighting KATHMANDU, Dec 1: At least 11 rebels were killed in the latest violence in Nepal’s Maoist insurgency, a Nepali newspaper reported today. The Nepali daily "Kantipur" reported that 11 extreme leftists were killed as a result of four separate security operations in the Chitwan district in the south, and the Sunsari, Panchthar and Siraha districts in the east. The Army said the number of Maoist casualties could be higher. In recent weeks there has been a lull in Maoist attacks against police forces but rebels have indulged in killing or torturing those who refuse to give them "donations". Nepal’s Maoists have been leading an armed insurgency to set up a communist republic since February 1996. More than 9000 people have been killed during this eight year period. (DPA) |
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Torture rife in Uzbek health farm jail JASLIK, UZBEKISTAN, Dec 1: Muzafar Avazov’s teeth were smashed and his fingernails ripped out by the time he died — but the head of the Uzbek jail where he was killed says the prison is like a health farm. "Prisoners live in comfort, eat scrumptious food and play soccer. All is great," said Colonel Alikhaidar Kolumbetov, sitting in a throne-like black and gold armchair. "With time, we want to make it all like in Europe here," he told journalists who were allowed to visit Jaslik prison in Uzbekistan’s western desert. But Avazov’s mother, who lives in a leafy area of the capital Tashkent 1,000 Km away, does not believe him. "Look what they did to my son in Jaslik. They tortured him in the basement and boiled him in hot water," said 61-year-old Fatima Mukadyrova, tears in her eyes, displaying photographs of a mutilated body with severe burns, cuts and bruises. The pictures clearly showed that the 36-year-old Avazov had no nails on his hands and feet and nearly all of his teeth had been broken. "Security officers wanted to bury the body quickly to avoid publicity. I said Muzafar’s unborn son should see his father, in any shape. So his other son took these photos." Uzbekistan enjoys warm ties with Washington in return for its support for the US-led war in neighbouring Afghanistan. But human rights activists say repression and torture are rife. —(AGENCIES) |
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Italy offers cash to boost its birth rate LAVIANO, ITALY, Dec 1: Christmas this year will be extra special for Antonietta Molinaro. Not only is she about to give birth but she’s also in line for a hefty "baby bonus" from the local Mayor. Perched high in the Apennine hills southeast of Naples, Laviano is edging towards extinction as poor road links and a lack of jobs push the young away in search of a new life. Last year there were just four new mothers in a population of 1,600. That compares with 70 babies born in 1970, when Laviano had around 3,000 residents. In a bid to reverse the trend, Mayor Rocco Falivena is digging deep into town coffers and offering couples 10,000 euros (11,900 dollars) for every new-born baby. "It’s a lot of money, but this is our top priority," said Falivena. "We are talking about the very survival of our town." Laviano is not alone in its fight for life. Scores of towns the length of southern Italy are dying out. Between 1991 and 2001 the south had a net migration loss of more than half a million people, while the more prosperous northeast gained some 460,000, according to the latest "demotrends" report from Italian demographic research body irpps. But wherever Italians may choose to live, the birth rate across the country is near rock bottom and the traditional stereotype of the Italian mamma and her squadrons of Bambini could not be further from the truth. (AGENCIES) US troops kill 46 Iraqis but allies suffer losses BAGHDAD, Dec 1: US troops killed 46 Iraqis and captured eight they said tried to ambush US convoys in central Iraq on Sunday, ending a weekend in which guerrillas killed a dozen people from four nations helping the US military. The deaths of the foreigners sparked new concern among Washington’s allies about the risks of getting involved in stabilising the country. A US military spokesman yesterday said US troops killed the Iraqis when the 4th infantry division repelled several coordinated ambush attacks on US convoys round Samarra, north of Baghdad. The attackers used mortars, grenades and small arms fire, and tried to block the route of one convoy with a makeshift barricade, Lieutenant-Colonel William Macdonald told reporters. "In all the clashes, coalition firepower overwhelmed the attackers, resulting in significant enemy losses," he said. Some attackers wore the uniform of the fidayeen, a militia formed by Iraqi President Saddam Hussein before US-led forces toppled him in April, he added. Two South Koreans were killed earlier yesterday when their car was sprayed with bullets near Saddam’s home town, a day after ambushes killed seven Spanish intelligence agents, two Japanese diplomats and their Iraqi driver, and a Colombian contractor. The US military said two US soldiers were killed on Saturday when guerrillas attacked their convoy near the Syrian border after the bloodiest month for occupying forces since the US invasion in March. (AGENCIES) South Korea’s Roh says Iraq shootings intolerable SEOUL, Dec 1: South Korean President Roh Moo-Hyun described yesterday’s killing in Iraq of two South Korean civilians as intolerable and ordered his national security team today to review security and issue a fresh alert to overseas missions. The Presidential blue house quoted Roh as telling aides the incident, in which two others were wounded, was inhumane because it targeted civilians. National Security Adviser Ra Jong-Yil told reporters the security meeting would focus on whether the attack deliberately targeted South Koreans. (AGENCIES) US looking at national security threats from software outsourcing WASHINGTON, Dec 1: One of the potential issues that the US Congress is being asked to tackle on cyber-terrorism is whether US security would be threatened by using commercial software products outsourced and developed in other countries. Commercial software development is increasingly outsourced to foreign countries such as India, raising questions about possible imbedded vulnerabilities created by foreign programmers who may sympathize with terrorist objectives. In a report on policy issues for Congress on cyber-terrorism, the Congressional Research Service (CRS) said a recent study by garnter inc., a technology research organization, predicts that by 2004, more than 80 percent of US companies will consider outsourcing critical it services, including software development. Corporations justify their actions by saying that global economic competition makes outsourcing it projects overseas a business necessity. Oracle, a major database software vendor and a major supplier to US intelligence agencies, has in the past contracted for software development in India and China, CRS said. "Terrorist networks are known to exist in other countries located in southeast Asia where some contract work has been outsourced such as Malaysia and Indonesia. Other possible recipients of outsourced products are countries such as Israel, India, Pakistan, Russia and China," the report said. Another issue facing the US is whether it should find effective ways to encourage more international cooperation during attempts to trace and identify a cyber attacker. There has been no evidence yet to confirm that a computer attack has been launched against US critical infrastructure targets for terrorist purposes, the report said. But the problem may be masked because there is currently no reliable way to determine the origin of a computer attack, it added. Attackers can hide details of their true location by hopping from one computer system to another, sometimes taking a path that connects networks and computers in many different countries. Pursuit of the attacker may involve a track back through networks requiring the cooperation of many Internet Service Provider (ISPs) located in several different nations. "Pursuit is made increasingly complex if one or more of the nations involved has a legal policy or political ideology that conflicts with that of the United States," the CRS cautioned. On possible links between hackers and terrorists, the CRS said some hacker groups may be globally dispersed with political interests that are Supra-national or based on religion or other socio-political ideologies. Other groups may be motivated by profit or linked to organized crime, and may be willing to sell their computer skills to a sponsor, such as a nation or a state or a terrorist group, the report said. For instance, it said, the Indian separatist group Harkat-ul-Ansar reportedly attempted to purchase military software from hackers in late 1998. Also in March 2000, the Aum Shinrikyo cult organization reportedly had contracted to write software for up to 80 Japanese companies and 10 Government agencies, including Japan’s Metropolitan Police Department. However, there were no reported computer attacks related to these contracts, the report said. Linkages between hackers, terrorists and terrorist-sponsoring nations may be difficult to confirm, the CRS said, but cyber terror activity may possibly be detected through careful monitoring of network chat areas where hackers sometimes meet anonymously to exchange information. (UNI) |
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