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China
becomes first BEIJING, Oct 15: China today became the first Asian country and only the third nation after the US and Russia to send a manned spacecraft, a ... ..more US
vetoes resolution UNITED NATION, Oct 15: The United States has vetoed an Arab sponsored UN Security Council resolution .....more Asia’s
elephants losing COLOMBO, SRI LANKA, Oct 15: Asia can be a very crowded place, especially if you are an elephant.,....more Don’t switch to Buddhism, Dalai Lama tells French PARIS, Oct 15: Exiled Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama today advised believers from ...more |
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US warns of new bomb threats in Saudi Arabia RIYADH, Oct 15: The US embassy in Saudi Arabia said local authorities have warned that militants may be targeting.....more US
interested in free COLOMBO, Oct 15: The United States is interested in signing a free-trade agreement with Sri Lanka but a US trade representative said on....more OIC to hold brainstorming session on issues facing Muslim world PUTRAJYA (MALAYSIA), Oct 15: Plagued by sharp differences on vital issues and .......more Americans among Gaza bomb casualites-US official JERUSALEM, Oct 15: Americans were among four reported casualties in the roadside bombing of a US embassy . ......more |
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China becomes first Asian country to send manned spacecraft BEIJING, Oct 15: China today became the first Asian country and only the third nation after the US and Russia to send a manned spacecraft, a mission hailed by Chinese president Hu Jintao as "the glory of our great motherland." A long March 2F rocket blasted off the Gobi desert launch pad at 9:AM (6:30 AM IST) and the indigenously made Shenzhou V spacecraft was orbiting earth 10 minutes later. The craft, carrying a single 38-year-old astronaut Yang Liwei, is expected to orbit 14 times, before landing in the inner Mongolia region of northern China in about 21 hours’ time. Yang, a Lieutenant in the Peoples Liberation Army told the mission control from space "I feel good, see you tomorrow". Hu, who was present at the time of the launch told Yang "as our country’s valiant pioneer in space exploration, you shoulder the great expectations of the motherland and the people to realise a dream we have cherished for thousands of years. We look forward to your triumphant return." "I will live up to the expectations of the motherland and the people, and will try my best to make every part of the mission successful," Yang promised hu before he entered the spacecraft. If the mission is successful, the flight will bring China membership of an elite space club, making it only the third country after the former Soviet Union and the US capable of putting humans into space and returning them safely to earth. "The launch is a success," said an official in-charge of the manned space programme. Though the historic occasion was not telecast live, recorded picture showed a long white trail of smoke against the clear blue sky. Earlier, TV channels interrupted programmes to announce the successful launch. The English-language channel CCTV-9 echoed the words of American Neil Armstrong when he became the first man to walk on the moon. "If these were small steps, then now we are taking a giant leap into space," the Announcer said. Xinhua said Yang, an ace air force pilot with over 1,300 hours flight experience looked "composed and at ease" as he read a flight manual in the capsule. He was resting as per latest reports. State television said he would be eating freeze-dried shredded prok with garlic sauce and fried rice during his flight, and drinking tea. The Shenzhou 5 launch came after four test launches of unmanned capsules that orbited the earth for nearly a week before parachuting back to inner Mongolia. The Shenzhou is based on the three-seat Russian Soyuz capsule, though with extensive modifications. Analysts say by launching the manned space mission, the Chinese Government is hoping to shore up national pride. "The long-cherished space dream of the Chinese nation has finally come true," Hu Shixiang, Deputy Director-General of China’s manned space flight programme said. (PTI) |
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US vetoes resolution condemning Israeli security wall UNITED NATION, Oct 15: The United States has vetoed an Arab sponsored UN Security Council resolution condemning Israel for errecting a security barrier that cuts into the west bank with the Arabs now pledging to take the issue to the 191-member general assembly. The veto came at the end of a day-long debate yesterday during which Israel came under sharp criticism from most of the 40 speakers. Ten of the 15 members of the council supported the resolution while Britain, Germany, Cameroon and Bulgaria abstained. US Ambassador John Negroponte said the resolution "was unbalanced" and "did not further the goals of peace and security." Syria, the only Arab member of the council who had moved the resolution, rejected an alternative draft put forward by the United States and insisted that its draft be put to vote. The Palestinian UN observer Nasser Al-Kidwa regretted the American decision and said there can be no "road map" peace process so long as Israel is building the barrier. Kidwa said they would now take the issue to the 191-member general assembly. The Arabs enjoy wide support in the assembly and the resolution is bound to be adopted as no member state has veto there. But, while Security Council resolutions are mandatory and enforceable, the assembly resolution only carry moral authority. This is second time in less than a month that the United States has vetoed a Palestinian resolution. Earlier, it had killed the resolution which demanded that Israel take back its threat to "remove" Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat. Kidwa said the second veto in less than a month casts shadow on the possibility of the United States playing a mediator in the Middle East peace process. But US Ambassador Negroponte said to get the US support, any resolution would have to denounce by name the main Palestinian militant groups, including Hamas, who have taken responsibility for suicide attacks on Israeli. It vetoed the resolution on Arafat for similar reasons. Israel’s UN Ambassador Dan Gillerman Praised the veto, saying the resolution "failed to draw attention to Palestinian terrorism." "It is a resolution which condemns the victims of terror rather than the terrorists themselves," Gillerman said. During the debate, Negroponte criticized the construction of the barrier and said that US officials are engaging directly with Israeli officials on the matter of fence. But he asserted that resolution is no way to pursue the matter. Kidwa and Arab members denounced the building of barrier, saying it is turning some Palestinian areas into virtual open prisons and described it an effort of Israel for land grab rather than response to suicide attacks. But Gillerman said the barrier is solely meant to keep suicide bomber out and save the lives of civilians. "Many Palestinians who oppose the fence simply want to continue killing Israelis. The Israelis building the fence simply want to live," he said. (PTI) |
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Asia’s elephants losing the battle for living space COLOMBO, SRI LANKA, Oct 15: Asia can be a very crowded place, especially if you are an elephant. The shrinking natural habitat of Asian elephants in recent decades has forced them into increased and often violent contact with humans, said environmentalists and wildlife experts who met recently in Colombo to find ways to tackle the problem. In India alone, home to more than half the continent’s estimated 35,000 pachyderms, about 200 wild elephants die every year in conflict with people or killed for ivory. "Elephants are shot, snared, electrocuted, run into by trains, poisoned in retaliation and everywhere deprived of habitat," said Iain Douglas-Hamilton, founder and director of the save the elephants group. Elephants are reduced to scavenging for food in such places as a stinking garbage dump in mannampitiya, in Sri Lanka, an island that is home to about 3,000 elephants. The dump is now an infamous elephant-watching spot. Four people were killed in September in Bangladesh after a herd of 10 elephants descended from a forest southeast of Dhaka and stomped through villages, forcing troops to kill one of the animals. Africa has about 600,000 elephants, belonging to a larger species whose numbers have grown after a worldwide ban on trade in ivory in 1989, resulting in overpopulation in some spots on the continent. "The international ban on the trade of ivory successfully halted the decline in elephant numbers in Africa," said Douglas-Hamilton. He helped pioneer the tagging of elephants to track their movements, using neck collars with complex electronic equipment containing gps trackers and motion detectors. Before the ban, ivory hunters had cut Africa’s elephant population in half. Indian ecologist Shankar Raman said conservationists must do more research to accurately gauge the situation in Asia. "We don’t really know if the population is increasing or declining in India," Raman said. "What we know is that the male population in many areas of southern India is declining," he said. "Normally, for each adult male you have two adult females. In some parts of south India it is now one adult male to 20 to 100 adult females. Males have been selectively poached for their tusks." Illegal logging is also driving Asian elephants from the wild. India, Thailand, Indonesia and Sri Lanka have seen their forest cover dwindle in recent decades, while illegal logging is still rampant in Myanmar, Cambodia and Laos. Elephants also leave their home ranges because of overpopulation, seasonal migration in search of food and the break-up of forests by roads and farms, Raman said. Historically elephants have been used for work, lifting weights humans could not, and for war — the Roman emperor Claudius rode an elephant to invade Britain nearly 2,000 years ago. Their magnificent bulk and surprising grace have also added to the panoply at ceremonies such as religious functions in Sri Lanka, although the island’s Government has banned their further domestication. India, where the rich have a tradition of keeping elephants, has more than 2,000 beasts in captivity. Experts from around 20 countries at the meeting discussed ways to keep apart humans and elephants, such as the installation of trip wires to alert people to the presence of the animals and radio-tracking devices. Governments should establish clear policies on how to reduce conflict between elephants and humans, the experts said. "A decision was taken that the United Nations will be asked to urge countries to do more to protect elephants," said Jayantha Jayewardene, a Sri Lankan elephant expert. (AGENCIES) |
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Don’t switch to Buddhism, Dalai Lama tells French PARIS, Oct 15: Exiled Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama today advised believers from other religions against converting to Buddhism. The Dalai Lama, in France for a series of conferences, told France Inter radio that people were better off sticking with the religion they grew up with. "In the 1960s I met people who had changed religion and then, later in their lives, experienced many problems because of that," the Buddhist leader and Nobel peace prize Winner said. "I also met a young Tibetan woman who said ‘I’ve become a Christian in this life but I will be a Buddhist again in the next life’," he said. "So I think it is best, if one is a believer, to keep the religion with which one was brought up, which one is used to, which is familiar," the Dalai Lama concluded. French media have reported an upswing in interest in Buddhism in France — traditionally a Roman Catholic country but with a five-million-strong Muslim population — which is thought to be linked to disenchantment with established religions. (AGENCIES) |
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US warns of new bomb threats in Saudi Arabia RIYADH, Oct 15: The US embassy in Saudi Arabia said local authorities have warned that militants may be targeting two of the most prominent commercial centres in the kingdom, both popular with western expatriates and companies. The Gulf Arab state has intensified security measures and mounted sweeping arrests of militants after triple suicide bombings on western housing compounds in the capital riyadh in may which killed 35 people, including nine Americans. "The embassy has become aware that Saudi authorities have advised some tenants of Al-Faisaliah and possibly kingdom towers that those complexes are subject to a bomb threat," the embassy said in an advisory issued on Monday. Al-Faisaliah and kingdom towers are sprawling luxury complexes in the capital Riyadh which house shopping malls, offices, hotels and residential apartments. Saudi officials were not immediately available for comment. "At least one major American corporate tenant has decided to close its offices in Al-Faisaliah temporarily based on the information from the Saudi authorities," the advisory added without naming the firm. The mission reminded American citizens that "terrorists do not distinguish between official and civilian targets" and urged them to remain on a heightened state of personal security alert. Saudi Arabia, birthplace of Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, has come under intense pressure from key ally Washington to destroy Al-Qaeda cells following the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States which are blamed on the militant network. Since the may bombings, also blamed on Al-Qaeda, there have been several bloody clashes between Saudi security forces and Muslim militants and more than 200 people have been arrested. The advisory follows another one issued by the US embassy earlier this month saying "known terrorist operatives" had been making note of areas often visited by westerners in the kingdom. (AGENCIES) |
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US interested in free trade deal with Sri Lanka COLOMBO, Oct 15: The United States is interested in signing a free-trade agreement with Sri Lanka but a US trade representative said on Wednesday it was too early to discuss a timeframe. Sri Lankan officials have said they want deeper ties with the United States — the island’s most important export market — by the end of 2004, the expiry date for a current deal that gives Sri Lanka a guaranteed share of the US textiles market. "The desire is to deepen our trade ties and begin to expand them and diversify them," US Deputy Trade Representative Josette Sheeran Shiner told a news conference. Bilateral trade totals about 2 billion a year, with the bulk of that Sri Lankan textiles exports to the United States. That country takes about 40 percent of the island’s exports. The countries entered into a trade and investment framework agreement in July 2002 to discuss ways to improve trade, and Shiner said both sides wanted to expand on that. Shiner was speaking on the last day of a two-day trip to Colombo where she discussed trade ties with Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe and members of his cabinet. "While there’s been no decision made yet in the United States about a free trade agreement...We are certainly actively looking at how to do that," she said. Local industry officials have said the textiles sector would be a major part of any trade agreement, especially concerning the origin of the material used to make the garments. Shiner would not go into details but said the issues included "looking at possible synergies between the apparel industry here and our Textile Industry and how we can make this a win-win venture". Sri Lanka has a trade agreement with India and is working on similar pacts with Pakistan and Singapore. (AGENCIES) |
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OIC to hold brainstorming session on issues facing Muslim world PUTRAJYA (MALAYSIA), Oct 15: Plagued by sharp differences on vital issues and marginalisation in the unipolar world, leaders of 57 Islamic countries will begin tomorrow a two-day brainstorming session to formulate a united stand on various critical issues like Iraq and Palestine as well as chalk out a strategy to confront those forces, which have launched "malicious campaign to link Islam with terrorism." Kings, Presidents and Prime Ministers of around forty countries are attending the 10th summit, whose main focus is to revitalise and revamp the 34-year old Organisation of Islamic Conferences (OIC) and give new direction to the Muslim world, which feels ‘neglected’ and ‘suffocated’ in the present unilateral system. Pakistan President Gen Pervez Musharraf, King Abdullah of Jordan, Syrian President Bashar Assad, Iranian President Mohammed Khatami, Bangladeshi Prime Minister begum Khaleda Zia and other leaders are participating in the summit, billed as the biggest gathering of Islamic leaders so far. Russian President Vladmir Putin and Phillipino President Gloria Mcpagal Arroyo and Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinwatra will also attend as special guests. Iraq is being represented by the chairman of the governing council. However, there are many prominent absentees, including Palestinian President Yasser Arafat, Libyan leader Col Muammar Gaddafi and Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak. UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, who was supposed to attend, has conveyed his inability to attend in view of the Iraqi developments. "We must send the message to the whole world that we want peace, stability, openness and we want to participate in the positive and constructive trends of the world and in international institutions," Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri said. Some powers claim that Islam is an obstacle to modern nation-building, he said, adding that "if we succeed in building the nation-state, I am sure their views of Islam will change" One of the pressing issues at the summit is Turkey’s decision to send troops to Iraq despite opposition by the OIC. Turkish Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul said that his country will send the troops to stablise situation in the war-ravaged country. "Turkey will not change its mind," Mr Gul said, adding that the OIC should "not sit on the sidelines." However, holding that the latest UN resolutions falls short of expectation of the Muslim countries, the chairman of the OIC ministerial committee Syed Hamid Albar said that a majority of countries are against sending troops to Iraq. The situation in Palestine was also a cause of concern for the OIC. Palestine Foreign Minister Farouk K Kaddoumi demanded imposition of sanctions against Israel, but this proposal did not find much support among the members although there was a total condemnation of Israeli atrocities against Palestinians. "Palestine expects the OIC to support its cause by putting pressure on Israel to solve the dispute." Mr Kaddoumi said. A separate resolution on Iraq and Palestine is expected, while a statement is also expected to be issued on the recent Israeli air attack on Syria. The Kashmir issue was only taken up by the Pakistani delegates and no other country mentioned it. In fact, a meeting of the OIC contact group on Kashmir was held yesterday where the Pak-based representative of the All Party Hurriyat Conference (APHC) presented a memorandum to the Foreign Ministers of Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and Turkey. The summit, which will elect Malaysia, as its new chairman. The OIC Secretary General will also be elected at the summit as the term of the present Secretary General Dr Belkeziz is finishes next year. There are three candidates for the post, including Salahuddin Quader Chaudhry from Bangladesh. "I hope that the OIC will act firmly and sincerely to achieve global renaissance that provides our societies and people with opportunities for development and progress to our ummah," Qatar Foreign Minister Sheikh Hamid Bin Jassim said. (UNI) |
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Americans among Gaza bomb casualites-US official JERUSALEM, Oct 15: Americans were among four reported casualties in the roadside bombing of a US embassy convoy in the Gaza strip today, an embassy spokesman said. "I can confirm there were American casualties," the spokesman, Paul Patin, said. Israel radio reported four security men were killed in the blast. (AGENCIES) Iraq elections definitely in 2004: Council leader PUTRAJAYA, MALAYSIA, Oct 15: The President of the US-backed Iraqi provisional governing Council today said elections would take place next year. Iyad Allawi, the new head of the Council under its rotating leadership, when asked by reporters for a date when elections would take place, answered: "definitely 2004". Allawi had just ended a news conference on the eve of a Muslim summit in Malaysia. (AGENCIES) Ivanov urges US to change UN Iraq resolution VIENNA, Oct 15: Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov today urged the United States to make changes in a draft Iraq resolution headed for the UN Security Council but appeared to rule out any Russian veto. The US has called a vote for today on a resolution aimed at getting UN approval of its occupation and reconstruction of Iraq, after rejecting proposals by key countries including Russia to add a timetable for self-rule. "Russia, France and Germany have presented their proposed amendments. We hope the authors of the new draft resolution will also include these proposed amendments," Ivanov told a news conference, speaking through a translator. Asked if Moscow would veto the resolution if changes were not made, he said, "I do not believe that this is now a matter of a veto by any side." Ivanov was speaking in Vienna after meeting Austrian Foreign Minister Benita Ferrero-Waldner. Yesterday, France, Russia and Germany, which opposed the war in Iraq, submitted six amendments. But they dropped previous crucial demands that the United Nations play a central role in Iraq’s reconstruction and that a provisional Iraqi Government take office within five months. (AGENCIES) Three Tamil Tigers get ‘death’ for Buddhist Temple bombing COLOMBO, Oct 15: Three Tamil Tiger rebels were today symbolically sentenced to death in Sri Lanka after being found guilty of bombing a sacred Buddhist Temple that killed 20 people. Three other rebels of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) were killed in the suicide attack five-years ago at the Temple in Sri Lanka’s Kandy area, 117 kilometres east of the capital Colombo. Despite capital punishment being law, it is not practiced in Sri Lanka. The Temple is one of the most venerated places among the majority Buddhist Sinhalese population in Sri Lanka, as "sacred teeth relics" of Lord Buddha are housed there. Two of the LTTE cadres involved in the attack were sentenced to 680 years each in addition to the death sentence, while another suspect was given a jail term of 490 years plus death. Twenty civilians, including children, were killed in the attack on January 25, 1998, while 19 others were injured. Extensive damage was caused to the Temple, however, the Buddhist relics remained unharmed. Tamil rebels carried out the attack 10 days ahead of the country celebrating its 50th Independence celebration from the British. Prince Charles was to be the chief guest at the celebrations near the Temple. (DPA) 4 dead in Gaza blast hitting US vehicles-radio GAZA, Oct 15: An apparent roadside bomb exploded next to a convoy of US diplomatic and CIA vehicles in the Gaza strip today and Israel radio said at least four people were killed. Witnesses at the scene said a Silver Cherokee jeep used by American diplomats was completely destroyed by the blast, which left a gaping hole from what appeared to be a roadside bomb. A Palestinian policeman at the scene said he had seen at least two bodies ripped apart but Israel radio said there were four dead in all. (AGENCIES) |
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