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US will transfer
Iraq’s WASHINGTON, Oct 4: Claiming that the US was making steady progress in Iraq, President George W Bush today .....more Protests against women’s ‘night out’ in Spanish town MADRID, Oct 4: A Spanish town has declared Thursday a night out for women, imposing fines on men who refuse to stay ......more Spain divided over Federico Garcia Lorca’s lost bones MADRID, Oct 4: On August 19, 1936, one month into the Spanish civil war, a firing squad formed by right-wing .....more Opposition boycott marks CPA meeting in Bangladesh DHAKA, Oct 4: The Commonwealth Parliamentary Association (CPA) today began a meeting in the Bangladesh capital Dhaka amid tight security and an ....more |
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China hush-hush on manned space flight BEIJING, Oct 4: China today announced plans to launch a satellite to monitor the earth but made no mention of its top-secret first manned space .....more Singapore
actress SINGAPORE, Oct 4: A Singapore television actress who blamed a diet pill for her liver failure, was awarded about 900,000 Singapore dollar (500,000 ....more US-South
Korea troops SEOUL, Oct 4: The United States and South Korea are discussing details of the size and location of a possible ......more Bush’s
Australian SYDNEY, Oct 4: United States President George W. Bush will visit canberra later....more |
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US will transfer Iraq’s Government to its people, says Bush WASHINGTON, Oct 4: Claiming that the US was making steady progress in Iraq, President George W Bush today said Washington would keep its promise to fully return Government to Iraqi people as soon as possible. Warning that transition to self-Government is a "complicated process, because it takes time to build trust and hope after decades of oppression and fear," he said "yet we are making steady progress and we will keep our promise to fully return Iraq’s Government to Iraq’s people as soon as possible," he said in his weekly radio address. Referring to the progress made in training the new Iraqi police and armed forces, Bush claimed men and women of the coalition know their mission. "They know," he said, "that we are fighting terrorists in Iraq so that we will not have to face them and fight them in the streets of our own cities. "Our forces know that a secure and sovereign Iraq will be a setback for terrorists, and an inspiration to all who dream of freedom in the Middle East. And the world can be certain, this essential mission in the war on terror will be completed." Bush, who has been confronting mounting opposition to the war in Iraq, claimed that progress had been made in Iraq since Saddam Hussein’s regime was brought down. "This weekend in Iraq, 750 Iraqi citizens completed their military training and became the first battalion of the new Iraqi Army. For decades, Iraq’s Army served the interests of a dictator. "Today a new army is serving the Iraqi people. And less than a year from now, Iraq will have a 40,000 member military force, trained and dedicated to protecting their fellow citizens." Bush said "Iraq now has a civil defence corps of newaly 2,500, a border guard force of 4,700 and a facility protection service of over 12,000." He said "for three decades, the police in Iraq were the feared enforcers of a dictatorship. Now Iraq’s new police are enforcing the just laws of an emerging democracy" and helping in raids which this week led to the arrest of "more than 50 suspected criminals and terrorists." "We are on the offensive against the deperate holdouts and Saddam loyalists who oppose progress in Iraq. The free nation we are helping to build will be free of them," he added. (PTI) |
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Protests against women’s ‘night out’ in Spanish town MADRID, Oct 4: A Spanish town has declared Thursday a night out for women, imposing fines on men who refuse to stay at home and to do housework to allow their wives to paint the town red, according to news reports. The first women’s day in Torredonjimeno near the southern city of Jaen was a mixed success, with some men refusing to pay the symbolic fine of 5 Euros (5.8 dollars) and about 500 people demonstrating against the initiative. Mayor Javier Checa had made the village look "ridiculous", female demonstrators said, stressing that they did not need their husbands’ permission to go out, according to reports yesterday. Four women patrolled the streets between 2000 hrs (local time) and 0200 hrs (local time), collecting fines from men who had ventured outside. The proceeds will go to associations fighting domestic violence. Checa said he wanted the town of 14,000 residents to make a small contribution to the equality of the sexes. "Men are not the only ones who have the right to go drinking beer with their buddies," Checa added. (DPA) |
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Spain divided over Federico Garcia Lorca’s lost bones MADRID, Oct 4: On August 19, 1936, one month into the Spanish civil war, a firing squad formed by right-wing nationalists shot four republicans in Barranco De Viznar near the Andalusian city of Granada. They reportedly vented their fury especially on one of the victims, spitting on his body and calling him a "red queer" as he lay in the mass grave. The 38-year-old victim was none other than Federico Garcia Lorca, Spain’s most beloved poet whose immortal verses on love and death are read all over the world. Sixty-seven years after Lorca’s death and 28 years after the end of the dictatorship of nationalist general Francisco Franco, which followed his 1939 victory in the civil war, Spain is divided over the fate of Lorca’s remains. Many people feel that they should be exhumed and given an honourable burial, while some say the anonymous mass grave constitutes a befitting monument to his violent death. Born to a farmer’s family near granada, Lorca later moved to madrid where he flirted with surrealism and psychoanalysis while remaining deeply attached to Andalusian folk culture. The different influences merged into a unique style, which transcended social and sexual barriers and made him internationally known. The author of "Gypsy Ballads" (1928) was a disturbing figure for the fascist nationalists, who had staged an uprising against the Republican Government and were to form an alliance with Nazi Germany later during the civil war. Not only was Lorca a Republican and a homosexual, he was also a "people’s poet" who wrote about the downtrodden, notably gypsies and, at the time, women. "He has done more damage with his pen than others with a gun," one officer reportedly said. Lorca’s work is haunted by a premonition of violent death, which was fulfilled when the nationalists tracked him down at a friend’s house. Lorca’s premature death helped to turn him into a cult figure, so threatening to the Franco dictatorship that his works were put under a virtual ban. Lorca died with three anarchists - a teacher and two bullfighters - whose descendants now intend to find the exact location of the mass grave and to give the bones proper burials. "My father always wanted to recover his father’s body, and he died without being able to do so," said Nieves Galindo, a granddaughter of the slain teacher. "I will finish the job." Galindo has the backing of the Association for the Recovery of Historic Memory (ARMH), a group which has already dug up the remains of dozens of Republicans in an attempt to rehabilitate their memory and to heal the wounds left by the civil war. (AGENCIES) |
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Opposition boycott marks CPA meeting in Bangladesh DHAKA, Oct 4: The Commonwealth Parliamentary Association (CPA) today began a meeting in the Bangladesh capital Dhaka amid tight security and an unprecedented boycott by opposition law-makers of the host country. "We will not participate in the conference and the decision is final," Mohammad Abdul Jalil, general secretary of the opposition Awami League, told reporters late yesterday. A two-day meeting of representatives from smaller countries would precede the formal start on Tuesday of the main session of the group, an association of law-makers from Britain and its former colonies, said Jamiruddin Sircar, the speaker of the Bangladesh Parliament. "Different issues including problems and prospects of democracy will come up in the small countries’ meeting," Andrew Imlach, CPA’s Director of Information Services, told Reuters. The Awami League told the CPA secretariat in London last week it would boycott the week-long conference in protest against the host Government’s "autocratic attitude and undemocratic behaviours." Authorities have deployed 9,000 extra police and paramilitary troops in Dhaka to beef up security during the conference, senior police officials said. More than 500 law-makers from 48 countries have confirmed their participation in the Dhaka conference, officials said. They will discuss all aspects of constitution, legislature, democracy, economy and cultural and civil rights, conference officials said. (AGENCIES) |
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China hush-hush on manned space flight BEIJING, Oct 4: China today announced plans to launch a satellite to monitor the earth but made no mention of its top-secret first manned space flight expected any day now. State television said China would launch a satellite at the end of 2003 in line with a Sino-European surveying project. "The testing of the long march 2 carrier rocket is running smoothly and the launch will be carried out as scheduled," it said, without giving details. China is expected in the next few days to become only the third country to put a person into orbit. Official media have been secretive about the launch date, but speculation is widespread it will be during or near the week-long national day holiday, which started on October 1. China has announced plans for probes of the moon and mars and already is established as a launcher of rockets for satellites. A successful manned flight, on the heels of Beijing winning a bid to host the 2008 Olympics, could fuel nationalism and boost the Communist Party’s credibility as China seeks a place on the world stage alongside great powers. A failure would be a loss of face and would raise questions about the necessity of a space programme in a country where 140 million people live on less than 1 dollar a day. (AGENCIES) |
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Singapore actress wins diet pill lawsuit SINGAPORE, Oct 4: A Singapore television actress who blamed a diet pill for her liver failure, was awarded about 900,000 Singapore dollar (500,000 US dollars) in damages by the High Court on Saturday, state media said. The court ruled that the slim 10 diet pill was the most probable cause of 29-year-old Andrea De Cruz’s liver problem, channel News Asia reported. Slim 10 importer semon liu, his company, health biz and distributor, TV media, were all found liable in the case. But the case against fellow actor, Rayson Tan, 38, whom de cruz had bought the pills from, was dismissed. Slim 10 has also been linked to the death of a 43-year-old woman and sickness in at least 20 others in Singapore. Bottles of slim 10 were taken off the shelves in April 2002 after the city state’s health authorities found an undeclared appetite suppressant, fenfluramine, in the Chinese-made herbal capsules. Fenfluramine, known for its weight-reduction effects, was banned in the United States in 1997. (AGENCIES) |
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US-South Korea troops dispatch talks proceed well-paper SEOUL, Oct 4: The United States and South Korea are discussing details of the size and location of a possible deployment of South Korean troops to Iraq and the talks are proceeding well, a Seoul newspaper said today. US Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz told South Korean reporters in Washington that the troop commitment would also benefit Seoul, expressing optimism over its pending decision on the deployment, the Joongang Llbo daily said. Referring to the likely dispatch of South Korean troops, the Korean-language newspaper quoted Wolfowitz as saying, "both countries are discussing in detail through military channels and I am aware it is proceeding well." South Korean troops would provide "practical" support to the US military force stationed in Iraq, given that South Koreans know US military operations well after years of joint exercises, he told the newspaper at a reception in Washington. Washington has asked Seoul for combat troops to help restabilise post-war Iraq. One South Korean newspaper quoted a US official as saying Washington would like 5,000 troops and a decision by mid-October. President Roh Moo-Hyun yesterday said South Korea must weigh very carefully whether to send combat troops to iraq, linking progress in resolving the North Korean nuclear crisis to a decision on committing troops to Iraq. A South Korean fact-finding team sent to Iraq to study the security situation there briefed President Roh on their survey today, YTN news said, as civic groups raised their voices against any troop dispatch. (AGENCIES) |
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Bush’s Australian visit confirmed SYDNEY, Oct 4: United States President George W. Bush will visit canberra later this month to thank Australians for sending 2,000 troops to help in the US-led invasion of Iraq, officials said today. Bush will fly in for a 24-hour visit october 22 after attending the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in Bangkok. Parliament is expected to be recalled for a special session so Bush can deliver an address to a joint sitting of both houses. Democrat Andrew Bartlett, a member of the upper house, said the cost of recalling Parliament when former President George Bush visited in 1991 was about 2 million australian dollars dollars (1.3 million US dollars). "That’s a very expensive talk," Bartlett said. "The almost 70,000 dollars a minute of President Bush’s address could easily have been better spent then, and taxpayers’ money can be better spent now." (DPA) Malaysia’s PM says US knew all along Iraq had no WMD KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 4: Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad on Saturday slammed the United States for launching an attack on Iraq despite the full knowledge that Iraq had no Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD). "I don’t believe that they (the US) didn’t know," Mahathir told reporters in response to this week’s report by arms inspectors in Iraq that they had not yet found any WMD in the country. "If they suspected that there were (weapons), they should have given Hans Blix (former chief United Nations Weapons Inspector) a chance to carry out a full investigation," the Premier was quoted as saying by the official Bernama news agency. Mahathir slammed US President George W Bush’s decision to attack Iraq as "hasty and made without sufficient proof", the report said. Blix said yesterday that the US-led coalition against Iraq had not proved there was a "manifest and imminent" threat from Saddam Hussein and insisted military action went against the UN charter. He told the BBC that the Iraq survey group, which published its report in the US Thursday, had found only "minor proscribed items and debris" in Iraq. Mahathir, 77, has fiercely opposed the war on Iraq and has called for a greater United Nations role in rebuilding the country. (DPA) US soldier killed in attack in Baghdad BAGHDAD, Oct 4: A rocket-propelled grenade and gun attack on an American patrol in Baghdad killed one US soldier and wounded another, a military spokesman today said. The spokesman said the soldier killed in the attack late on Friday was from the 4th Infantry Division. The attack brought to at least 85 the number of US soldiers killed in action since Washington declared major combat over on May 1. The US military blames the guerrilla campaign on supporters of former President Saddam hussein and foreign Islamic militants. Most attacks on occupying troops have been concentrated in Baghdad and the surrounding Sunni Muslim heartland where Saddam drew much of his support. (AGENCIES) EU ministers agree to take Bosnia mission mid-2004 ROME, Oct 4: European Union Defence Ministers today agreed that the bloc should aim to take over NATO’s Bosnia peacekeeping mission in mid-2004, a senior diplomat said. He said Britain had offered at a meeting of EU Defence Ministers in Rome to take command of the force, which may number some 6,000 troops. (AGENCIES) Blast damages Venezuela telecoms agency after raid CARACAS, VENEZUELA, Oct 4: A grenade blast damaged the headquarters of Venezuela’s state telecommunications agency after its inspectors had confiscated broadcasting equipment from a private television channel critical of the Government, officials said. Communications and Information Minister Jesse Chacon said no one was hurt in the blast at the caracas offices of the conatel agency, which he said occurred around midnight yesterday. "Two persons on a motorcycle threw a grenade," Chacon told state television. There were no independent witnesses of the incident but a reuters photographer said the glass entrance door of the conatel building had been blown in and there were shrapnel marks around the entrance. In an unusual move, a Communications and Information Ministry official telephoned a Reuters correspondent at home to advise there had been an explosion. Earlier yesterday, Conatel Inspectors seized seven transmission dishes and an antenna from the globovision tv news channel in what the station criticized as an attempt by President Hugo Chavez’s administration to muzzle its anti-Government broadcasts. Conatel alleged the station had been illegally broadcasting on unregistered frequencies. Globovision Director Alberto Federico Ravell accused the Government of trying to close down the channel and curb press freedoms in Venezuela, where left-winger Chavez has maintained a bitter public war of words with media critics. The equipment seizure by Conatel sparked protests by angry anti-Government demonstrators yesterday outside the Conatel headquarters. Chacon linked the grenade blast to the protests. "What happened is the result of the use of the media to incite violence," he said. Globovision is one of four private television stations Chavez has dubbed the "four horsemen of the apocalypse" for their critical coverage of his self-styled "revolution" in the world’s No 5 oil exporter. The populist President, who is resisting a campaign by foes to hold a referendum against his rule, has accused the channel of backing a short-lived coup against him last year. Chavez’s Government and its opponents have blamed each other for a series of bomb blasts and explosions in Caracas this year, which have caused damage but few casualties. Last month, an explosion damaged the Caracas barracks of Chavez’s honor guard alongside the presidential palace. (AGENCIES) |
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