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Iraqi Govt council asks UNITED NATIONS, Nov 25: The US-appointed Iraqi governing council has asked the UN Security Council to adopt a new resolution endorsing an .....more Moderate Islamic clerics need help - US official WASHINGTON, Nov 25: The "civilized world" must do more to help moderate Islamic clerics who oppose the radical brand of Islam embraced ...more Foreign giants tune into China deco revolution BEIJING, Nov 25: Chen feiping’s Beijing apartment gives style a whole new meaning. An artist and designer, she dreamed up .....more Chinese airlines to fly to Nepal from next year KATHMANDU, Nov 25: Two Chinese airlines companies Air China and China Eastern......more |
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Human rights organs KATHMANDU, Nov 25: Seven international human rights organisa-tions have endorsed the call by the Nepal’s National Human Rights Commission .....more Bangladesh’s
army DHAKA, Nov 25: The Bangladesh army has seized a third consignment of illegal firearms and ammunition in the densely forested Chittagong hill....more US
troops launch TIKRIT, IRAQ, Nov 25: Saddam Hussein would be horrified if he saw what US ....more Latest
China mine BEIJING, Nov 25: A gas explosion at a coal mine in China’s central province of ...more |
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Iraqi Govt council asks UN to endorse power-transfer timetable UNITED NATIONS, Nov 25: The US-appointed Iraqi governing council has asked the UN Security Council to adopt a new resolution endorsing an agreement it had entered into with Washington for transfer of power to a local Government by June and general elections by the end of 2005. The Iraqi request was contained in a letter from Council Chairman Jalal Talabani which the Security Council received yesterday. The Council had set December 15 as a deadline for Iraqis to submit a timetable for drafting a constitution and holding elections. In the letter, Talabani promised to establish the "principle of civilian control" over the armed forces and security forces and to draw up a "fundamental law to administer the Iraqi state by the end of February." The law would respect human rights and basic freedoms including "freedom of religion, religious practices and equality among all citizens," he said. "In the light of what had transpired, it has become appropriate for the Security Council to adopt a new resolution taking into consideration the new circumstances," he added. The council members, who were expecting a letter on these lines, are already discussing the elements of a new resolution but differences remain between the positions taken by the United States and Britain on one hand and Russia, France and Germany on the other. Washington and London would like the council to immediately endorse the timetable drawn up the governing council on November 15 in consultation with them. But Moscow, Paris and Bonn want the resolution to encompass much more, including a major role for the United Nations and enunciation of a political process that would include all Iraqis who are opposed to violence, all neighbouring countries and the world body at all stages. They favour an Afghanistan-type international conference but the US says it is for iraqis to decide and if they make such a proposal, Washington would give it a "serious" consideration. Diplomats envision a period of intense negotiations and discussions on the content and language of the resolution and were not making any guesses about the timeframe. In a separate letter sent to UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan on Nov 10, Talabani had said "active participation" of the world body is "essential for the success that we all seek." In his reply also released yesterday, Annan promised to take the views of the governing council into consideration. The timetable submitted to the council is exactly what it had worked out with the United States and Britain. A provisional body with wide representation to all segments of the Iraqi society would be selected by may end and it would the elect a provisional Government by June end, Talabani told the Council. (PTI) |
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Moderate Islamic clerics need help - US official WASHINGTON, Nov 25: The "civilized world" must do more to help moderate Islamic clerics who oppose the radical brand of Islam embraced by Osama bin Laden and others in order to disrupt recruitment of "terrorists," an influential Pentagon official said yesterday. Douglas Feith, Under Secretary of Defence for Policy, also defended himself against critics of his planning for postwar Iraq and said the anti-US insurgency in Iraq was small and unpopular but well-armed and well-financed. In a speech to the heritage foundation, a conservative think tank, Feith compared President George W Bush’s war against terrorism to former President Ronald Reagan’s fight against Soviet communism during the cold war. Feith said the "battle of ideas" is a crucial part of Bush’s strategy along with disrupting and destroying extremist networks and protecting the US homeland. "The battle of ideas in the global war on terrorism is largely a fight within the world of Islam between extremists and people in the Muslim world who oppose them," Feith said. He said the United States must ensure that terrorism is punished and that state sponsors of terrorism pay a price. "But our efforts also have to target the recruitment and indoctrination of terrorists," Feith added. "No matter how successful we are at killing and capturing terrorists or intercepting their weapons or funds, we can’t win the war on terrorism unless we can reduce the supply of new terrorists." Feith said that "Many Muslim religious leaders disapprove of suicide bombing. But many have been silenced or intimidated to voice support for the terrorists." "The civilized world can do more to support moderate clerics, defend them and provide them with platforms on which to protect their religion from extremists who want to distort and hijack it." Feith said the United States had "an interest in amplifying and seeing amplified" the voices of moderate clerics, but did not specify how that was taking place. In a controversial memo to Feith and three other Pentagon officials, Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld on Oct 16 referred to the same issue, and asked, "should we create a private foundation to entice radical Madrassas (religious schools) to a more moderate course?" The Pentagon’s postwar planning for Iraq — Feith’s responsibility — has come under fire from critics who say miscalculations have cost the lives of US troops and gobbled up money. But feith fired back. "Postwar planning is not about predicting specific things that are going to happen six months or a year from now and then building detailed plans based on your prediction," he said. On Sunday two more US soldiers were shot in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul, before being dragged from their civilian car in broad daylight and beaten and stabbed by young men, witnesses said. The killings were the most brazen in a rash of attacks by anti-American insurgents that have led to the death of 70 US soldiers in the past month. (AGENCIES) |
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Foreign giants tune into China deco revolution BEIJING, Nov 25: Chen feiping’s Beijing apartment gives style a whole new meaning. An artist and designer, she dreamed up a white-hued parquet and even glass walls for her pebble-floored bathroom that cost 120,000 yuan (14,500 dollar). The apartment had cost her 800,000 yuan. "I wanted something that reflected my personality. That’s what young people go for now," the television host turned singer said as she poured chinese tea into tiny glass cups. Interior decorating — barely heard of a decade ago — has become big business in China thanks to a home ownership frenzy and a fast growing monied class no longer content with hanging state company calendars on its walls. The revolution in Communist-ruled China has not eluded the likes of Swedish retailer Ikea or British do-it-yourself giant B Q, which launched a store the size of six football pitches — its biggest —in Beijing in October. "New wave and everything leading edge in terms of design, they are completely into. Nothing traditional," said Ian Strickland, B Q’s China managing director. "Style and range are very, very important and people have the spending power," he said in an interview. About 80,000 Chinese customers cough up money every week for B Q wares, including fancy moulded glass Washbasins costing up to 4,000 yuan ( 483), to do up modern apartment blocks crowding the skylines of major cities. At least three times that number — family and friends in tow —spend an average of two hours per trip poring over products at B Q, part of Britain’s biggest home improvement retailer, Kingfisher PLC. (AGENCIES) |
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Chinese airlines to fly to Nepal from next year KATHMANDU, Nov 25: Two Chinese airlines companies Air China and China Eastern Airlines will operate regular flights from three major Chinese cities to Kathmandu from early next year, according to a media report. Air China has decided to fly from Chengdu to Kathmandu from March 2004, and China eastern airlines is preparing to operate from Beijing and Shanghai to Kathmandu, the Kathmandu post reported today quoting officials. "We will be operating two flights per week in Kathmandu-Chengdu route from next summer, "the daily quoted Qiao Shuwen, general manager of Air China Kathmandu office as saying. According to Qiao, the company would even operate 370-passenger capacity airbus 340 in the sector if needed. "But initially we will fly a Boeing 757," he said. The China eastern airlines is planning to operate its Beijing-Delhi and Shanghai-Delhi flights via Kathmandu the paper said and added that the Indian Government has not provided the airlines with fifth flying rights, and as a result it will not be allowed to pick up or drop any passengers in Kathmandu-New Delhi sector. A delegation of China eastern airlines had come to Nepal last month to study the operation of new flights, the paper quoted M B Mathema, managing director of Cosmic Air Pvt Ltd as saying. (UNI) |
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Human rights organs urge Nepal to honour human rights KATHMANDU, Nov 25: Seven international human rights organisa-tions have endorsed the call by the Nepal’s National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), eight Governmental donor agencies and embassies here for international monitoring of the human rights situation in Nepal. The seven international human rights organisations including amnesty international, human rights watch in a joint press statement issued yesterday, have called on the Nepali Government to extend invitations to the human rights experts of the United Nations Human Rights Commission immediately to visit the country. The Nepal Bar Association and many Nepalese Human Rights Organisations have also made similar requests for international monitors. The statement outlined deep concern over the attitude of the army officials over the NHRC’s findings of ramechhap incident on August 17. The human rights organisations have urged the Government and the maoists to respect human rights in the country. (UNI) |
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Bangladesh’s army seizes illegal arms cache DHAKA, Nov 25: The Bangladesh army has seized a third consignment of illegal firearms and ammunition in the densely forested Chittagong hill tracts, where a quarter-century tribal insurgency ended six years ago. Security officials today said soldiers raided a hideout of suspected militants or weapons smugglers on Sunday at Karangatali, a village deep in the forest. Seized weapons included automatic rifles, sub-machineguns, grenades, bullets and explosives, security officials told reporters. They had no immediate confirmation of who was involved or the origin of the weapons. Soldiers had found at least two other consignments of illegal weapons in the past six weeks, police in the southeastern chittagong hill tracts told reporters. Tribal rebels in the 14,200 Sq Km hill tracts, bordering India and Myanmar, had fought a 25-year insurgency against the Bangladesh army demanding political autonomy. They signed a peace pact with the Government in 1997. But remnants of the former rebel group Shanti Bahini were still active and often attacked those who supported the peace initiative, killing about 200 people in past six years, police said. Bangladesh’s Foreign Ministry yesterday rejected an accusation by India that militants hiding in Bangladesh were trying to destabilise Assam, one of India’s seven states bordering Bangladesh. "Such allegations are totally baseless," a Foreign Ministry Spokesman said. "We would like to reaffirm that Bangladesh has never, ever allowed any militant group to use its soil to live or conduct cross-border insurgency," the spokesman said. (AGENCIES) |
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US troops launch home improvements in Saddam palace TIKRIT, IRAQ, Nov 25: Saddam Hussein would be horrified if he saw what US soldiers from the 1-22 battalion’s reconnaissance platoon are doing to one his finest palaces in his hometown Tikrit. For the last few days a few men from the platoon have swapped their rifles for circular saws and hammers to create what a home away from home. Under the direction of sergeant Joseph Dalessio from Baltimore, Maryland, they have built 15 double wooden bunk beds to sleep 30 men in one of the opulent but bare rooms of the Saladdin palace, perched high above the Tigris river. Dalessio and his crew have made wooden lockers and shelves for each soldier to store weapons and helmets, along with racks for duffle bags. Next on the drawing board is a lounge area to watch satellite television. "My end state is that for each of the guys here, after a mission, we can say let’s go home and feel that it’s something like that," said Dalessio, 22, stripped to a brown army issue T-shirt and desert-coloured fatigue pants as he worked. "We figured we’d get some wood and other stuff and live the way we want to." Few US troops in Iraq are as cosy. "We just want to live comfortably, have some space. No one wants to live six inches from the next cot," said Platoon leader Captain Chris Morris, from New Jersey. The smell of freshly cut wood wafts through the vast room. Three large Chandeliers hang from the ceiling, out of reach of the looters who stripped most of what could be carried away after Saddam’s overthrow. The US military has got more use out of the complex than Saddam ever did. Some 3,000 soldiers of the 4th infantry division are based at the walled compound of dozens of palaces in Tikrit, 150 Km north of Baghdad and scene of some of the toughest resistance to the the US occupation. The marbled halls buzz with activity. When not on missions, soldiers work out on gym equipment.In the rest and recreation hall, movies are shown three times a day on a large screen. Fearful of assassination, Saddam stayed on the move and rarely enjoyed these rooms. US commanders said a caretaker here told them Saddam had always slept in minor palaces, not grandiose ones like the Saladdin. Dalessio said the opulence of the building had slowed down his home improvements. He broke 30 nails trying to get through the floor. "I’ve come across fake stuff, but this is real marble, probably an inch thick," said Dalessio. When troops are not on patrol, one huge ballroom in the Saladdin palace often becomes a hockey field, with soldiers whizzing around the marble floor in dusty boots and swinging wildly at a makeshift puck. (AGENCIES) |
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Latest China mine disaster kills 18 BEIJING, Nov 25: A gas explosion at a coal mine in China’s central province of Henan has killed 18 people, the China daily said today, the latest in a string of disasters that have taken the lives of more than 4,600 miners this year. The explosion occured at the licensed, privately owned Sundian coal mine in the city of Ruzhou on Saturday when miners were changing shift underground, the paper said. It came less than two weeks after a gas explosion killed 48 miners in the eastern province of Jiangxi and days after China announced plans to invest a further 2.2 billion yuan (265 million dollars) next year to improve the safety of mines. A new work safety law and efforts to patrol unsafe work sites have failed to stem the number of deaths so far this year in what is widely believed to be the world’s most dangerous mining industry. Coal mine accidents killed 4,620 miners in the first nine months of this year, according to state media. (AGENCIES) |
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Kennedy relative Skakel appeals murder conviction NEW YORK, Nov 25: Lawyers for Kennedy relative Michael Skakel filed an appeal in Hartford, connecticut, yesterday of his conviction for the 1975 murder of his 15-year-old neighbor Martha Moxley, attorneys familiar with the case said. Skakel, now 43, was convicted last year of bludgeoning moxley to death with one of his mother’s golf clubs and sentenced to 20 years to life in prison. Lawyers for the two sides were not available for comment. Defence Attorneys have said they planned to appeal to state Supreme Court on the grounds that the case should never have been transferred out of juvenile Court and that the statute of limitations for the murder had expired by the time Skakel was charged with the crime, 25 years after it had occurred. Skakel, who was 15 years old when Moxley was murdered, is a nephew of Ethel Kennedy, widow of the late sen. Robert Kennedy. Skakel’s lawyers also claim misconduct in the way prosecutors presented their closing arguments. A separate petition for a new trial is also in the works, Skakel’s lawyers have said, based on information they have received that others may have been implicated in the murder. Hugh Keefe, a former connecticut prosecutor and now a prominent Criminal Defense Attorney based in new Haven, said he believed Skakel’s appeal had promise. "When this murder occurred there was a statute of limitations that would on its face apply to this prosecution and preclude it," Keefe said. "That issue was raised by trial counsel pretrial and was denied. "I think the state of connecticut has something to worry about, sustaining that conviction on the statue of limitations grounds." Keefe said arguments over the prosecution’s closing, which took taped comments made by Skakel for a possible book and juxtaposed them opposite photographs of the murder scene, would also likely get strong consideration. "Prosecutorial misconduct in closing arguments is a hot issue in connecticut," said Keefe. "We have had a plethora of criminal convictions overturned based on that issue." (AGENCIES) Turkish court charges nine over bombings ANKARA, Nov 25: A Turkish state Court today charged nine people on suspicion of involvement in two devastating blasts last week which destroyed the British consulate and the headquarters of a British-based bank in Istanbul. The semi-state Anatolian news agency said the Court had charged the nine people with "belonging to, aiding and abetting an illegal organisation" in the early hours of Tuesday after a lengthy interrogation of the suspects. It said three other people detained by police after last Thursday’s explosions had been freed. The agency gave no further details. State security Court officials told reporters on Monday evening that four of 16 people sent to the Court had been released after giving testimony to prosecutors. Groups apparently linked to Osama bin Laden’s Al-Qaeda network have claimed responsibility for the November 20 attacks on the consulate and the Turkey headquarters of the London-based HSBC bank in which 30 people were killed. The blasts came five days after similar suicide bomb attacks on two Synagogues in Istanbul in which 25 people died. The suspects include relatives of the bombers, all of whom came from Bingol, a centre of Islamic fundamentalism in Turkey’s impoverished and mainly Kurdish southeast near the border with Iran. Turkey, which began on Tuesday to celebrate the annual Bayram holiday marking the end of the fasting month of Ramadan, has stepped up security at key sites, fearing further attacks. (AGENCIES) Colombia army says rebels killed Japanese hostage BOGOTA, COLOMBIA, Nov 25:The Colombian army yesterday said it had found a dead body it believed was that of a Japanese businessman kidnapped by Colombian Marxist rebels in February 2001. The body which seems to be that of autoparts company executive Chikao Muramatsu was found near the town of San Juan De Rio Seco, about 70 Km northwest of the capital Bogota an army officer told . The dead man, who was wearing army fatigues, had been shot to death a few hours earlier. Muramatsu was kidnapped in Bogota in February 2001. The revolutionary armed forces of Colombia — Marxist rebels known by the Spanish Initials Farc — asked more than 20 million dollars in ransom, according to the army. (AGENCIES) French juror dismissed for wearing headscarf PARIS, Nov 25: France’s Justice Minister has ordered a Court near Paris to replace a female juror for wearing a headscarf, the ministry said yesterday, adding fuel to a debate about the place of religious symbols in public life. Justice Minister Dominique Perben asked the Court in Bobigny, north-east of Paris, to dismiss the woman who had appeared without the headscarf during the jury selection phase but wore it at the start of the trial on Monday. "Informed of this incident, Dominique Perben immediately asked the Court to request the replacement of this juror," the ministry said in a statement. The court had complied with his instructions, it added. Perben said wearing a headscarf was contrary to the principles of impartiality and independence under the law. French law imposes strict religious neutrality in public institutions but the Government has been split on whether to ban headscarves. France is home to Europe’s largest Muslim minority with about five million people. Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin said on Sunday he supported a "code on secularism". Such a code would not replace laws but could provide a framework for new legislation, he said. "We should be able to achieve this work during the second half of 2004," Raffarin told Europe 1 radio, speaking out for the first time in favour of such a code, which could give guidance on how to treat religious signs in public institutions. Two teenage girls were expelled from a high school in October and a Paris town hall worker has been disciplined, all for wearing headscarves. (AGENCIES) |
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