Mass Gay marriage ruling applauded and denounced

NEW YORK, Nov 19: The ruling by a Massachusetts court in favor of the emotional and divisive issue of same-sex marriage brought cheers from America’s Gay communities and vows from conservatives to fight back.

Activists hailed the Supreme Judicial Court’s 4-3 decision as a civil rights victory for Gays, some politicians promised to stop gay marriage in America and religious groups called the ruling radical and reprehensible.

"I broke out into one of the biggest grins I’ve ever had in my life," said David Buckel, an attorney who worked on the case for Lambda legal, a Gay advocacy group.

"What would straight couples feel like if told that they could not choose to marry the person they love?" he asked in a voice choked with emotion.

Only one other state, Vermont, legally recognizes same-sex couples and allows them to enter into "civil unions" — giving them many of the legal protections of marriage.

But regardless of the ruling, Gay marriages will not be equal under federal laws for purposes of taxes, and health and retirement benefits because a 1996 law defined marriage for federal purposes as between one woman and one man.

Canada has already taken steps to legalize Gay marriages and the US Supreme Court in June struck down state Sodomy laws. Now, with similar cases pending in at least three other states, experts said Gay marriage could become an especially hot topic in the 2004 US Presidential election.

"Candidates will have to take sides," said Ken Sherrill, a political scientist at Hunter college in New York.

Conservative politicians, such as republican US Sen John Cornyn of Texas, and the Christian coalition of America called for a constitutional amendments to ban same-sex marriage.

Such an amendment is pending in the House of Representatives.

"It is reprehensible for left-wing Judges, such as these four radical Massachusetts Judges, to disregard the will of the overwhelming majority of the American people who believe that marriage is only the union of one man and one woman," coalition president Roberta Combs said.

Among democratic presidential hopefuls, former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean said he had been proud to sign the nation’s first law establishing civil unions for same-sex couples.

"This decision should be viewed as an opportunity to affirm what binds us together — a fundamental belief in the equality of human beings, regardless of race, gender or sexual orientation," he said.

Rival democratic Sen Joe Lieberman of connecticut said he opposes Gay marriage but will oppose a constitutional amendment against Gay marriage — a sentiment echoed by another presidential contender, democratic rep Richard Gephardt.

"It is my hope that we don’t get side-tracked by the right wing into a debate over a phony constitutional amendment banning gay marriage," he said, calling it "purely political and unnecessarily divisive."

All the legal and political jousting aside, a few simply took a romantic view.

In Boston, Gloria Bailey and Linda Davies, one of the couples in the lawsuit, happily started making wedding plans. "I asked her to marry me and she said ‘yes’," Davies said.

In New York, Chad Hunt, a straight man relaxing in a popular coffee shop in a heavily Gay neighborhood, said the ruling was about love, not law. "It’s so hard to find true love and if you can do that, then the law is the last thing you should have to worry about," he said. "I’m all for it." (AGENCIES)

Hope slowly returning to long suffering Afghan villages

KABUL, Nov 19: First there were the Soviets, then civil war, finally came US troops hot on the trail of fleeing Taliban fighters: The village of Ishaq Suleyman in western Afghanistan has certainly seen its share of suffering in the past two decades.

Destroyed three times since 1979, the village was also struck by a five-year drought, which left its fields barren and dry, its livestock perishing in the dust. Many families fled, seeking a better life across the iranian border, 120 kilometres away.

Recent events in afghanistan have caused the return of some measure of hope to the village, and others like it. Hope not only of peace, but also of prosperity. Many of the region’s farmers are now turning to the task of rebuilding their villages and recultivating their lands.

The job facing them is by no means easy. Afghan farmers have many difficulties to contend with. In some areas, up to two-thirds of the land that had previously been farmed can no longer be used. Livestock levels have fallen to half of what they once were.

"We used to farm 1,300 hectares - now we’re down to 200," said Haji Bashir, the village head of Ishaq Suleyman. "Where we once had 11,000 sheep and goats, now only 4,000 remain."

Bashir cites a chronic shortage of water as the main problem. In many places the centuries-old irrigation systems were destroyed during two decades of almost continuous war. On top of this, half of the 1,500 village families fled during times of drought and fighting. They are only now beginning to trickle back.

According to Bashir, the lack of water limits local farmers to growing wheat, rye and chickpeas - crops which yield low profit margins. The area lacks the necessary irrigation to produce the far more profitable crop of watermelons.

Less than 200 millimetres of rain falls per year in Afghanistan -a quarter of the German average. Wide swathes of this mountainous country are barren and dry - only in some valleys lie patches of fertile ground. Just 14 per cent of the entire surface area of the country consists of arable land.

"There are still tremendous needs to be addressed in Afghanistan," admits Serge Verniau, a representative of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) in Kabul. In some areas, groundwater levels have sunk by dozens of metres.

The situation has however improved somewhat in the past year. The FAO can point to a record grain harvest of over five million tons last year as an indication of progress. The drought which had afflicted so much of Afghanistan finally came to an end last winter.

Hope slowly returns, but severe problems remain.

"Even though there’s no acute famine situation, things are still not good," commented Manijeh Ali, a nutrition expert from the FAO. "Around 50 per cent of all children are chronically undernourished."

Many Afghans survive exclusively on a diet of tea and bread. Life expectancy for the country is extremely low - 45 years for men and 46 for women.

Afghan farmers have yet another headache to contend with alongside the effects of war and drought - the country’s lack of infrastructure. Proper, paved roads are still a rarity in a country almost twice the size of germany.

The majority of villages are accessible only by dusty, bumpy mountain trails and dirt tracks - many of which are still strewn with landmines. Rural farmers are denied easy access to local markets, the only places to sell their produce.

In the face of so much adversity, it’s little wonder that poppy cultivation is on the increase. Afghanistan is now the world’s leading producer of illicit opium, and cultivation is rapidly spreading into new areas.

The opium business is an attractive option for Afghan farmers -poppies don’t spoil and can be stored practically forever. Drug cartels pick up the illegal crop themselves, saving growers the bother of bringing them to market.

The inhabitants of Ishaq Suleyman still have reason to count themselves lucky. Their village lies only six kilometres from the provincial capital of herat. ‘’nonetheless, we still have problems with bringing our goods to market,’’ says Haji Bashir.

To illustrate this, Bashir cites the problems of local carpet weavers. "We can only sell to traders in the Herat bazaar. There’s no other option." It’s to the market traders that most of the profit goes, rather than to the local craftsmen.

While a carpet originating from Herat may sell abroad for thousands of dollars, the weavers of Ishaq Suleyman and their families are guaranteed to see only a fraction of that. (DPA)

Japan PM re-elected, Iraq dispatch on hold

TOKYO, Nov 19: Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi was today re-elected at the start of a brief Parliamentary session as Japan grappled with the touchy question of when to send non-combat troops to help rebuild Iraq.

Koizumi’s second term became a certainty after his ruling coalition won a stable, although reduced, majority in a November 9 election for Parliament’s lower House.

Topping his agenda is the question of when to dispatch troops to Iraq, whose worsening security situation has prompted Tokyo to back-pedal on a plan to send an advance team.

"The situation is a harsh one but if there are areas where people from the private sector, Government employees or the self-defence force can play a role, I think Japan should actively contribute to carry out its responsibility in the international community," Koizumi told a news conference.

But Koizumi, speaking after his re-election, did not say when soldiers from Japan’s military, known as the self-defence force, might be sent.

Tokyo had been expected to commit about 150 non-combat troops to Iraq before the end of the year and perhaps as many as 1,200 soldiers and civilians eventually, but the plan was put on hold after an attack last week in southern Iraq killed 18 Italians.

Koizumi must balance the needs of Japan’s security alliance with the United States and the concerns of domestic voters, many of whom opposed the US-led war on Iraq and are wary of sending their military to a country where US forces face daily attacks.

The expanding overseas role of Japan’s military is controversial because the armed forces are still constrained by a post-World War 2 Pacifist Constitution and have not fired a shot in combat since 1945.

The main opposition democratic party, its presence in Parliament boosted substantially by the election, is against the troop dispatch under current conditions. A law passed in July allows the troops to be deployed, but only in "non-combat areas".

Democratic Party leader Naoto Kan has vowed to tackle the topic in the Parliamentary session, expected to last nine days.

The sensitivity of the issue was highlighted on Tuesday, when Japanese newspapers gave front-page coverage to news that shots had been fired near the Japanese embassy in Baghdad.

Japan’s Foreign Ministry said that there had been gunfire on a street near the embassy on Tuesday and that the perpetrators had fled when an Iraqi guard fired back. There were no injuries.

Top Government spokesman Yasuo Fukuda today said it was not clear if the embassy had been targetted.

The incident follows reports that Osama bin Laden’s Al-Qaeda group had claimed responsibility for two deadly bombings in Turkey and had vowed more attacks on the United States and its allies, including Japan.

Koizumi, who took office in April 2001 promising to cut pork-barrel spending, privatise wasteful public corporations and fix ailing banks, could become Japan’s longest ruling Prime Minister in two decades if he completes a fresh three-year term as President of his liberal democratic party begun in September.

The Prime Minister — who is expected to reappoint all his Cabinet Ministers following his own re-election — is under pressure from many voters, media and the democrats to make real progress on his reform agenda.

Along with the Iraq troop dispatch, reform of a pension system groaning under an ageing population looms large.

Both issues could put the LDP at odds with its coalition partner, the Buddhist-backed new Komeito, whose clout in the ruling camp has increased as a result of the election.

Few, however, see the two political allies parting ways any time soon, given their need to cooperate in an election for half the seats in Parliament’s upper house next July. (AGENCIES)

Parents of slain UK troops could be hard on Bush

LONDON, Nov 19: Reg keys, whose son Thomas was killed in Iraq, is not on the list of family members of fallen British servicemen invited to meet George W Bush this week, but he wishes he was: He has a message for the US President.

"I’d love to meet him, but I’d refuse his hand," he said. "I’d say: ‘I can’t shake that hand. It’s stained with the blood of my son."’

Bush’s meetings with families of soldiers killed in Iraq have been billed as one of the centrepieces of his state visit to wartime ally Britain this week.

But as Prime Minister Tony Blair has already learned, the President is likely to find them a difficult audience.

Over the past months, parents and widows of slain soldiers have emerged as some of the war’s most potent critics, many trying to balance pride in their husbands’ and sons’ sacrifice with anger over what they see as false justifications for war.

Lance-corporal Thomas Keys, 20, was one of six British royal military policemen who was killed by an angry mob while training Iraqi police on june 24 in a town near the southern city of Basra.

"I want to challenge Bush to meet me," Reg Keys told by telephone from his home in Wales. "I think I know more about what’s going on in Iraq than he does, from phone calls with my son who was on the ground out there."

In interviews with British media ahead of his visit to London, Bush stressed his plans to meet the families of soldiers who died in Iraq, to "tell them their loved ones did not die in vain. The actions we have taken will make the world more secure and the world more peaceful in the long run."

But Bush’s comments have been partly overshadowed by widows and parents, several of whom have said they want no part of what keys called ‘’a propaganda means for his re-election’’.

"I’m proud of my son. He died doing his duty," he said. "But what you have to bring out is: Was their duty justified?"

His son died believing he had gone to war to protect his country from Iraq’s Weapons of Mass Destruction, which have yet to be found, Keys said.

"I think we were all deceived and I think (Bush) has got a nerve to show his face after the deceit he’s pointed toward us," he added. "My son goes off to war thinking he’s protecting the country — he’s gone off deceived and lost his life deceived."

Britain’s Ministry of Defence said the meetings with the families of service members would be private and gave no details as to who had been invited or how they were selected. The mod lists 53 British servicemen as having died in the conflict.

At a memorial service for them in London’s St Paul’s Cathedral last month, Blair did not speak. The sermon was given by archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, one of the war’s steadiest critics.

Several family members said they did not want Blair to attend that service at all. Keys said he sought out the Prime Minister at a reception afterwards.

"I said that the blood of my son is on your hands. ‘You are responsible. How do you react to that?"’ Keys said.

"He looked white. I have to be fair to the man. He didn’t dodge the question. He did say that he was responsible for the deaths, that he was trying to make Iraq a better place."

"I said: ‘All you’ve done is kick the lid off a hornets’ nest."’ (AGENCIES)

Sri Lanka Parliament reopens

COLOMBO, Nov 19: Sri Lanka’s Parliament reopened today, ruling that President Chandrika Kumaratunga’s two-week suspension of the assembly was illegal and that it would disregard any future attempt to disrupt the legislature.

The suspension expired today and the Parliament immediately reconvened with speaker Joseph Michael Perera saying President Kumaratunga had no authority to prorogue Parliament without the concurrence of the legislature which is controlled by a party that is opposed to her.

"Preventing the functioning of Parliament can thus be construed as a breach of its collective rights and it is my hope that the prorogation does not set an unhealthy precedent for the future," the speaker said.

He said if confronted with such "abuse of power" by the President, the majority of members should have the right to ask for Parliament to reconvene.

He also recommended the amending of standing orders of Parliament to carry out the function "beyond controversy."

Speaker Perera is from Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe’s united national party, but his office is neutral in the assembly and his rulings are binding on the legislature and cannot be challenged in Court.

The Speaker citing Parliamentary experience in Britain, Australia, India and New Zealand, said no Parliament in the world had been suspended by an executive without the concurrence of the Prime Minister.

He argued that the President as one branch of the state cannot be seen to suppress another branch that is exercising the sovereignty of the people.

"The President cannot prorogue Parliament without the approval of the majority of the house," he said amid protest by legislators of President Kumaratunga’s party which is the main opposition in Parliament.

The Speaker thanked Government legislators for not forcibly reconvening the assembly and breaking Parliamentary tradition.

President Kumaratunga took control of the ministries of defence, interior and media and suspended Parliament on November 4 while Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe was away on an official visit to the US.

The political crisis which ensued led peace broker Norway suspending its mediatory role in the island.

The political crisis eased yesterday when both leaders agreed to make efforts to resolve "important national issues" and appointed a committee to advise them. (PTI)

Al-Qaeda survives by mutating into decentralised network

NEW YORK, Nov 19: A spate of suicide bombings in several countries illustrates that terror network Al-Qaeda has survived by mutating into a more decentralised network relying on local allies to launch more frequent attacks on varied targets.

Evidence found from bombing sites in Turkey to Morocco suggests that Al-Qaeda provided support through training, financing or ideological inspiration to local extremists.

Through an evolving and loose alliance of semi-autonomous terrorist cells, the network has been able to export its violence and "brand name" with only limited involvement in the attacks, a media report said quoting experts.

"Al-Qaeda as an ideology is now stronger than Al-Qaeda as an organization," Mustafa Alani of the Royal United Services Institute for Defence and Security Studies in London told `The Los Angeles Times’.

"What we are witnessing now is a major shift in Al-Qaeda’s strategy. I believe it is successful. Now they are not on the defensive. They are on the offensive."

A US-led assault on Al-Qaeda has left many of the network’s leaders dead, in jail or on the run. Still, counter-terrorism officials in Paris linked Al-Qaeda or its followers to a drumbeat of attacks in Russia, Indonesia, India, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Morocco and the Philippines, dating back to spring, the paper said.

Intent on maximising the propaganda impact of its actions, the network has shifted from a single-minded focus on American interests to a broader mix including Jewish and Muslim targets.

Al-Qaeda allegedly gave the direct order for some of the attacks, investigators said, including one in Indonesia and the may bombing of a residential compound in Riyadh, the Saudi Arabian capital.

But in others, its local affiliates appeared to have operated more independently. The may suicide bombings in Casablanca, Morocco, are seen as a model of the network’s emerging strategy, the daily said. (PTI)

US redoubling efforts to find Bin Laden

WASHINGTON, Nov 19: Two years after President George W Bush said Osama bin Laden was wanted dead or alive, America’s new Afghan envoy said the United States is redoubling efforts to find him and other leaders of both Al-Qaeda and the Taliban.

The new US Ambassador, Zalmay Khalilzad, an Afghan-born diplomat, said more help is needed from Afghan citizens particularly along border regions of Pakistan that the elusive Bin Laden and top aides might be crossing into.

"We’re going to redouble our efforts," Khalilzad told a group of reporters. With new funding for Afghanistan approved by Congress, the United States plans to "take the fight to the Taliban extremists and to go after the Al-Qaeda leadership," he said.

Bin laden, his top Lieutenant Ayman Al-Zawahri and ousted Taliban leader Mullah Omar remain at large after the US-led toppling of the Taliban from control of Afghanistan after the Sept 11, 2001, attacks. They have eluded a fierce manhunt based on Bush’s order that Bin Laden was wanted "dead or alive."

The Arabic television station Al-Jazeera a month ago broadcast two audio tapes purportedly from Bin Laden that vowed more suicide attacks inside and outside the United States and warning that all countries backing Washington over Iraq were targets.

Khalilzad said as part of the effort to find Bin Laden, attempts will be made to convince Afghans that turning them in will lead to a more peaceful country.

"We’re going to try to engage and involve more Afghans in different parts of the country, to participate in this effort with information, with other kinds of help that they can provide," he said.

Dismissed as a spent force largely on the run only months ago, Al-Qaeda has taken responsibility for bombings in Istanbul on Saturday and may have launched similar attacks in recent weeks in the Iraqi cities of Baghdad and Nasiriyah as well as Riyadh and Jakarta.

There are concerns in Washington about the stability of the Afghan Government amid renewed violence by members of the Taliban and Al-Qaeda, regional warlords flexing their muscles and drug lords and other criminals operating freely.

Khalilzad said the Taliban’s numbers are only in the hundreds.

He said help was needed from Pakistan to stop cross-border raids.

"There are Taliban leaders and people that are using Pakistan territory to come across and carry out attacks in Afghanistan. We would like, and are working with Pakistan, to bring an end to that, for the Pakistan Government to be active on this," he said.

The Bush administration has given Afghanistan a lower priority than Iraq, as reflected in its request that the US Congress approve 20 billion dollars for rebuilding Iraq and about 1 billion dollars for Afghanistan.

The United States has also pressed other members of NATO to provide most of the troops for an international peace force in Afghanistan. Until recently, it showed little enthusiasm for the idea of expanding the NATO force to areas outside Kabul. (AGENCIES)

Four die in Swedish helicopter crash

STOCKHOLM, Nov 19: At least four people died when a Swedish military rescue helicopter with seven on board crashed at sea off the country’s west coast during an exercise, officials said today.

"Four people died and one was injured yesterday night’s helicopter accident in the northern archipelago of Gothenburg. Two people are still missing," the Swedish armed forces said in a statement.

It said the crash was the worst flight accident the military had experienced in 35 years. (AGENCIES)

Child dies as quake jolts central Philippines

MANILA, Nov 19: A strong earthquake jolted the central Philippines in the early hours today, killing a child and sending panicked residents fleeing from their homes, the civil defence office said.

Seismologists said the tremor at 1:14 AM measured 6.6 on the richter scale.

The quake rocked several cities on the island of Samar, the country’s third largest, and was felt as far as the Bicol region on the main island of Luzon to the north and parts of Mindanao island to the south.

Nery Amparo of the office of civil defence said the child was crushed to death by collapsing walls in the town of Canabid.

"We are still trying to determine the extent of the damage," she told .

The quake was centred about 70 Km northeast of Borongan town in eastern Samar, the seismology institute said. It was caused by movements in the Philippine trench in the Pacific. (AGENCIES)

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