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Black watch awaits its LONDON, Dec 14: The British Government will decide this week the fate of a centuries-old Army regiment just back from duty in Iraq, where five of its ....more Lost boy from central Asia suckered into militancy PESHAWAR, PAKISTAN, Dec 14: He talks like a hardcore Islamist, but sounds like a little boy lost.......more Developing giants under pressure on climate change BUENOS AIRES, ARGENTINA, Dec 14: While developing nations China, Brazil and India grow at....more ISLAMABAD, Dec 14: Pakistan has denied a newspaper report that the CIA has set up covert bases in the country’s remote tribal regions to hunt for Osama bin Laden and stop him from plotting another attack on the US. ...more |
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India provides over 23 KATHMANDU, Dec 14: The Indian Government has provided Rs 23,95,304 for rural ....more Stopping some drugs raises heart attack risk: Study CHICAGO, Dec 14: Patients who discontinue long-term use of anti-inflammatory drugs such as ibuprofen ....more Airlines hit Govts over anti-terror costs GENAVA, Dec 14: International airlines are gearing up for a major push to force Governments to pay more towards the anti-terror measures they have .....more Pentagon in debate over managing US global image WASHINGTON, Dec 14: Two years after shutting what critics called a deceptive........more |
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Black watch awaits its fate after Iraq stint LONDON, Dec 14: The British Government will decide this week the fate of a centuries-old Army regiment just back from duty in Iraq, where five of its soldiers were killed. Under a plan to remodel Britain’s armed forces, in line with the view that elusive but deadly terror groups have replaced the cold war threat, Army Chiefs are set to merge Scotland’s historic black watch regiment with other units. Defence Secretary Geoff Hoon announced earlier this year that the number of infantry battalions in Britain’s Army would be cut to 36 from 40, reducing the size of the Army by about 1,500 troops to 102,000, and that some regiments would become part of larger units to increase their flexibility. Prime Minister Tony Blair’s Spokesman said Hoon would make a detailed statement towards the end of this week. He said it was not primarily a political decision and that the Government would act on the advice of military leaders. "Of course ministers and the Prime Minister will have to approve that decision but it will be one based on the recommendations of the Army," the spokesman told reporters. Critics say the Government is wrong to cut troop numbers at a time when it is fighting a global war on terror. Relatives of black watch soldiers are furious that the regiment, which is more than 250 years old and fought napoleon, the boers and in two world wars, may be disbanded only weeks after frontline duty in Iraq. Rumours are swirling that Hoon may even reprieve it for fear of the negative publicity its demise would generate. Around 850 British troops, mainly from the black watch, were moved from the southern iraq area they normally control to a base south of Baghdad to replace US soldiers taking part in the assault on the flashpoint city of Falluja. The regiment came under almost daily bombardment during the mission, suffering five deaths. The troops’ move north to the area dubbed the "triangle of death" from the relatively quiet south was controversial in Britain where anti-war sentiment remains strong. They returned to their base in basra earlier this month and over the past three days have flown back to Britain for a Christmas break. (AGENCIES) |
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Lost boy from central Asia suckered into militancy PESHAWAR, PAKISTAN, Dec 14: He talks like a hardcore Islamist, but sounds like a little boy lost. Fifteen-year old Khalid was part of a gang that planted a booby-trapped bomb that killed four schoolchildren in Pakistan’s troubled tribal region of south Waziristan last October. Under guard in a safe house used by Pakistan’s security forces in Peshawar, the capital of north west frontier province, Khalid is a long way from his home in the central Asian state of Tajikistan. Before being caught with two accomplices, one even younger than himself, Khalid spent a month being groomed as an Islamist guerrilla fighter in the mountains on the Afghan-Pakistan border. His teachers clearly found a receptive mind, judging by Khalid’s admiration for the Taliban’s interpretation of Islam. "I want an Islamic Government like Taliban. That was the only true Government in the world," he said of Afghanistan’s vanquished rulers, whose medieval system of punishments and religious intolerance was condemned in most of the world. According to Khalid’s world view, Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden could be a role model. "He is a mujahid (holy warrior). I like him because I know a little bit of Islam and I understand he is a good man and doing good." Wearing Pakistan’s traditional baggy shalwar kameez dress, the shy, the fair-skinned pimply youth spoke reluctantly how he spent time with militants linked to Al-Qaeda. Sometimes he would cover his face with his hand apparently to avoid answering questions. "I was just wandering there and doing nothing." Khalid said he was kidnapped along with four companions on his way to school at a village about 45 minutes drive from Tajik capital Dushanbe and then brought to Pakistan. "We were blindfolded and thrown into a vehicle," he said. Experts say there have been many reports of smuggling of children from impoverished Tajikistan where parents even sell their children because of grinding poverty. Pakistani military officials say militants were recruiting more and more teenagers from central Asian to carry out attacks, and say they have intercepted messages specifically asking their contacts to send them children. "They are the future terrorists," said lieutenant-general Safdar Hussain, who leads the army’s hunt for militants in northwestern Pakistan. "They are the best people to be used for terrorism. They can plant improvised explosive devices without anyone suspecting them because they are very young." Army operations in south Waziristan have flushed out large numbers of militants from the former Soviet-controlled states of central Asia. Members of Al-Qaeda linked Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU), for example, landed up in the semi-autonomous Pashtun tribal lands after first taking refuge in Afghanistan, having been forced out of Tajikistan in 2000. The leader of the Uzbek group, Juma Namangani, was killed by a US-led air strike in 2001, when Washington decided to retaliate against Al-Qaeda’s attacks on US cities on Sept 11 by bombing Bin Laden’s militant network in Afghanistan. Military officials say Namangani’s charismatic successor, Tahir Yuldashev, was now reorganising these central Asian militants and recruiting young men for attacks on the security forces in the tribal region. "Qari Tahir Uuldashev, who has his own political motives, is using these boys for terrorism," Hussain said. Commonly known as Qari because of his clear recitals of passages from the Koran in a beautiful voice, Yuldashev has been on the run since Pakistani security forces launched an offensive on his stronghold south Waziristan last march. He was said to have been wounded, but managed to escape and has not been sighted since. Blamed for a series of bomb attacks in the Uzbek capital Tashkent in 1999, Yuldashev was sentenced to death in absentia. Khalid said he had never met Yuldashev but has seen his in pictures. And with his own militant career curtailed, Khalid is at a loss over what he wants from life. Asked if he would like to see his widowed mother again, Khalid can only nod miserably, unable to raise his eyes from the ground. (AGENCIES) |
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Developing giants under pressure on climate change BUENOS AIRES, ARGENTINA, Dec 14: While developing nations China, Brazil and India grow at break-neck pace with their burgeoning industry and farming, industrialized countries want them to clean up the dirty practices that have made them some of the world’s biggest polluters. China is the second producer of greenhouse gases, behind the United States, thanks to an industrial boom based on coal-burning energy. Brazil is estimated to be ranked sixth because of the carbon dioxide produced by the burning of the Amazon forest to clear land for soy, and India, also reliant on coal, is the fifth-largest source of the heat-trapping gases. At the December 6-17 UN conference on climate change in Buenos Aires, negotiators and activists aim to get developing countries on board for the next stage of reducing emissions after the Kyoto protocol concludes in 2012. Developing countries were excluded from the 1997 Kyoto agreement because they argued that curbs on emissions would thwart much needed growth for their large, poor populations. Their exclusion was one of the reasons the United States declined to sign Kyoto. But between 1990 and 2000, energy-related carbon dioxide emissions grew by 69 percent in India, 57 percent in Brazil and 33 percent in China. "If India, China and Brazil replicate our pattern of fossil-intensive development, the game is over," said Alden Meyer, Director of the US-based union of concerned scientists. Steve Sawyer, climate and energy specialist for greenpeace, says these countries need to "decarbonize" their economies and move toward cleaner energy and more efficient manufacturing. "This will be one of the key features of a post-2012 regime," Sawyer said. China and Brazil took a step forward at the conference by jointly presenting their inventories on greenhouse gas emissions. India did the same six months ago. At the presentation Friday, joke waller-hunter, Executive Secretary of the UN Body dealing with climate change, called China and Brazil "two strong pillars of our climate change process." But the developing nations are expected to stick together and put up a fight on any international initiative that might hit growth, their key to alleviating poverty. Brazil’s Science and Technology Minister, Eduardo Campos, said last week that the responsibility of slowing global warming "substantially" falls on rich countries. Diplomats here debate how to give the developing countries incentives to participate in a post-Kyoto deal. Curbs on emissions, like the five percent cut required of Kyoto countries by 2012, would put them off, as would trade sanctions. Activists say the European Union, the leader in these climate change talks, holds the key to bringing them into the fold. "The EU has to engage these countries and make it clear that they are not trying to impose measures that would hurt their economies," said Meyer. Conference host country Argentina and the EU are pushing for an agreement specifically for developing countries — a package of financial incentives and technology transfers to promote their adaptation to climate change. That might be one of the few breakthroughs of this conference, marred by the United States’ refusal to participate in the Kyoto protocol that goes into force in February or in any talks for after 2012. (AGENCIES) |
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ISLAMABAD, Dec 14: Pakistan has denied a newspaper report that the CIA has set up covert bases in the country’s remote tribal regions to hunt for Osama bin Laden and stop him from plotting another attack on the US. Yesterday’s edition of the New York Times, citing anonymous senior US officials, had reported that Bin Laden was being sheltered by tribesmen and foreign militants in northwestern Pakistan. It said he was suspected of controlling an elite terrorist cell that could be aiming to launch a "spectacular" attack on the United States. "There are no CIA cells in Pakistan ... In our tribal areas, and there is absolutely no truth in this New York Times report," the Daily Times quoting a senior Pakistan official reported today. President President Pervez Musharraf, facing criticism at home for his strong ties with Washington, had previously acknowledged that a small number of American troops were in Pakistan to hunt Al-Qaida militants. "Foreign troops deployed in the neighbouring Afghanistan are not hunting Al-Qaida militants in Pakistan," he said. He said there was no evidence of Al-Qaida militants, including Bin Laden, hiding in Pakistan and denied the times report that the CIA had set up bases near the Afghanistan border. "Whenever US intelligence and communication experts come up with some specific information, and they need our help, we organise things, act on their tips, but the operations are conducted by our own security forces." (UNI) |
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India provides over 23 lakh rupees for rural electrification KATHMANDU, Dec 14: The Indian Government has provided Rs 23,95,304 for rural electrification projects to four village development committees in Nepal. The work will be carried out in four VDCs — Gaurishankar, Basantpur, Haripurwa and Sangrampur VDCs — in Sarlahi district. Deputy chief of mission of the Indian embassy V P Haran laid the foundation stone of the programme today. A Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was signed on July 19, 2004 between the embassy of India and the Sarlahi District Development Committee. The project would be executed by the DDC, Sarlahi. A monitoring committee has been constituted for the project consisting of members from the four VDCs to oversee the project implementation to ensure proper utilisation of the grant assistance. The implementation of the above project would go a long way in improving the living conditions in these villages in Nepal, a press release by the Indian Embassy here said. It also reinforces India’s commitment to strengthen bilateral relations between the two countries, through such cooperation, especially in the infrastructure sector of Nepal. (UNI) |
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Stopping some drugs raises heart attack risk: Study CHICAGO, Dec 14: Patients who discontinue long-term use of anti-inflammatory drugs such as ibuprofen and naproxen run a higher risk of heart attack for a few weeks immediately afterward, a study said. "Our results suggest that abrupt discontinuation of Non Steroidal Anti-Inflammatory Drug (NSAID) therapy may have to be avoided and that physicians should carefully review the disease status and the current medication profile before terminating a therapy" with such drugs, said the study from Switzerland’s university hospital basel. The study was based on a review of a British health database and covered in part 8,688 patients who had suffered their first heart attack between 1995 and 2001. Even after taking into account such things as high blood pressure, cigarette smoking and diabetes, the heart attack risk was 50 percent higher in the 29-day period after patients stopped taking the drugs, compared to patients who were not on such therapy, the study said. The report, published in the current issue of the archives of internal medicine, involved non-aspirin NSAIDS that are frequently prescribed to treat pain and inflammation. The study did not speculate on what causes the apparent short-term higher risk, but said systemic inflammation has been shown to be associated in other studies with an increased heart attack risk. But it also noted that other studies have shown no significant protective heart attack effect for people taking such drugs. The new report found that the risk for a heart attack in the month after the drugs were stopped was highest in patients with rheumatoid arthritis or lupus. (AGENCIES) |
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Airlines hit Govts over anti-terror costs GENAVA, Dec 14: International airlines are gearing up for a major push to force Governments to pay more towards the anti-terror measures they have been forced to implement, industry sources said on Monday. The sources said the carriers — and the airports their passengers pass through — were likely to become increasingly vocal in the coming weeks. "It is clear the companies cannot go on forever taking the full burden of the security costs that have been imposed on them," said one industry official who asked not to be named. "They are going to start speaking out firmly." Signals of displeasure came over the weekend in a statement from the brussels-based Association of European Airlines (AEA). "Terrorist action is aimed at Governments and not the airline industry," the AEA said. "The terrorist threat therefore requires a united front from the aviation industry and their Governments, with a comprehensive and responsible funding policy." In an interview with the international Herald Tribune last week, Giovanni Bisignani, head of the Global Airlines’ body IATA, said the cost to the travelling public of security measures was 5 billion a year, largely passed onto the carriers. International airlines, the overwhelming majority of which are members of the Geneva- and montreal-based IATA, are expecting a total loss of 4 billion this year, boosted from an earlier predicted 3 billion because of soaring fuel costs. Between the Sept 11, 2001 attacks on the United States and the start of 2004, the industry as a whole had racked up losses of some 30 billion, with some airlines hit worse than others. Although international scheduled traffic has increased by nearly 17 percent so far this year against the same period last year, this has not increased optimism among the carriers. "Unfortunately traffic growth and profitability do not always work hand in hand and we still expect industry losses in excess of 4 billion for this year," Bisignani said in a November 30 statement on the figures. The AEA statement was headed: "Enough is enough: States must pay to protect the public from terrorism." It was issued in the name of association members who include All European Commercial Airlines except the new low-cost budget carriers — who nevertheless have already made clear that they are chafing at security costs. A European commission study published on Friday showed that in 2002 alone European Airlines and airports paid three billion euros (nearly 4 billion) for additional anti-terror measures ordered by Governments. Governments in Europe, it said, had been very active in setting up a comprehensive anti-terrorist framework "but have failed to move to the next step and finance those necessary preventative measures." The AEA held up the actions of the US Government as an example of of what should be done in Europe. It cited the EU study as showing that since September 2001 the US administration had provided some 32 billion in financial aid to the US aviation industry. "This clearly demonstrates that the US administration has understood its responsibility for protecting society, both in the air and on the ground, against terrorist acts," the AEA said. (AGENCIES) |
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Pentagon in debate over managing US global image WASHINGTON, Dec 14: Two years after shutting what critics called a deceptive propaganda office, the Pentagon is embroiled in a new high-level debate over how to polish the fading US image abroad, defense officials said. The discussion, also involving the White House and State Department, has been sparked by increasing violence and deaths in Iraq, the war on terrorism and a perception in much of the Muslim world that America is the enemy. Pentagon officials said military commanders were concerned about blurring the lines between using misinformation to fool an enemy and providing accurate information to a US and worldwide audience. "The lines must always be what people focus on because they are not always clear," Chief Pentagon Spokesman Lawrence Di Rita told . "There is a bright line of distinction between the age-old art of military deception and transmitting accurate information to the public in a timely manner." Other officials confirmed a New York Times report that some of the proposals of a now-defunct Pentagon office were being resurrected elsewhere in the defense department. In February 2002, US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said the Pentagon had closed its office of strategic influence, which critics had labeled a propaganda effort that could spread lies around the world under the premise of misleading US enemies. The office was secretly created after the Sept 11, 2001, attacks as part of a broader mission by the US Government to influence public opinion in the Islamic world. An october incident illustrated how traditional military public affairs operations can be mixed in with "psychological operations" intended to manipulate an enemy. Three weeks ahead of the marine-led offensive in Falluja, a marine corps spokesman, 1st Lt Lyle Gilbert, went on CNN to make an announcement suggesting the all-out assault had begun. US officials said Gilbert’s televised remarks were intended to fool rebels in Falluja into believing the offensive had begun in order to scout how they would defend themselves in a city that at the time was a sanctuary for the insurgency. A military official, who asked not to be named, said the ploy may have "gained some tactical-level advantage" for marines on the ground, but asked: "In the big strategic picture, what was the cost" to US military credibility? This official advocated "clearly defined lanes" between military public affairs operations, whose comments reach a broad US and world audience, and information operations and psychological operations aimed at manipulating an enemy. One defense official confirmed that Rumsfeld signed a secret order late last year called "information operations roadmap," a 74-page classified directive that the times quoted officials as calling "a plan to advance the goal of information operations as a core military competency." "There’s a lot of interagency discussion on whether we need new institutions, or to revive old ones," Di Rita said. He mentioned the Voice of America, the United States Information Agency, Radio Free Europe and other cold war efforts. Gen George Casey, top US commander in Iraq, last summer combined his public affairs operations with psychological and information operations into a unified strategic communications office. Gen Richard Myers, Chairman of the Military’s Joint Chiefs of Staff, is concerned US goals in Iraq and counter-terrorism could be undermined if people doubt the veracity of statements by military spokesmen and commanders, officials said. Myers sent a memo on Sept 27 spelling out his concerns to army, air force, navy and marines chiefs and commanders worldwide about intertwining public affairs operations and information operations. "PA (Public Affairs) and io (information operations) activities directly support military objectives, counter adversary disinformation and deter enemy actions. Although both pa and io conduct planning, message development and media analysis, the efforts differ with respect to audience, scope and intent, and must remain separate," Myers wrote. (AGENCIES) EU, US in contact with Hamas, group leader says LONDON, Dec 14: The United States and the European Union are in contact with Palestinian militant group hamas despite having listed it as a terrorist organisation, a Hamas leader said in an interview broadcast. Hamas politburo Chief Khaled Meshaal told BBC television yesterday that the militant group, which has been at the forefront of a four-year-old Palestinian uprising against Israeli occupation, has no plans to agree a ceasefire unless it is decided by a referendum or negotiated among all Palestinian powers. Meshaal said violence and negotiations for peace went hand in hand and that Hamas would reject calls for a ceasefire even if they came from a new Palestinian President, who is expected to be elected next month. "Negotiating without resistance leads to surrender but negotiating with resistance leads to real peace," Meshaal said. Meshaal said Washington made contact with Hamas recently and the EU is still holding meetings with it. "The European Union, which put Hamas on a list of terrorist organisations, is still continuing communications and meetings," Meshaal said. "The American administration, which also put us on terror lists and criticises us, contacted us in the past months." A spokeswoman for the EU’s executive commission said she was unaware of any contact between the Bloc and Hamas. There was no immediate comment from the US state department and a White House official dismissed the comments. "We’ve heard these reports but we’re not aware of anything that would substantiate them," the official said. EU Foreign Policy Chief Javier Solana got himself in a tangle last month when he said he had direct talks with Hamas and then, hours later, denied it. Solana’s office said at the time that any mention of contacts or meetings between Solana and Hamas referred to "soundings and impressions conveyed to him" and yesterday a spokesperson from Solana’s office reiterated that statement. Britain’s foreign office said on Monday that London’s policy was not to talk to Hamas but said that like the EU, Britain had held talks with people and Governments close to Hamas. "We recognise that anyone who wants a proper understanding of what is happening in Israel and the occupied territories needs to talk to people and Governments who know and understand Hamas," a foreign office spokeswoman said. Meshaal said he was convinced that the late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat had died from poisoning last month, a theory expounded by many Palestinians despite vehement denials from their leaders and doctors who cared for Arafat in Paris. "There’s a lot of evidence that Yasser Arafat was poisoned. His health deteriorated suddenly without a reason, the symptoms which Yasser Arafat suffered were similar to poisoning." The EU put Hamas on its list of terrorist organisations last year after the group rejected repeated EU calls to end suicide bombings in Israel and declare a ceasefire to permit peace negotiations. The United States also regards Hamas, which advocates the destruction of Israel, as a terrorist group. (AGENCIES) Zapatero says Aznar deceived Spain over train bombs MADRID, Dec 14: Spain’s Prime Minister accused the previous Government of deceiving the public about who carried out the March 11 train bombings and of erasing computer records for the crucial three days between then and elections. Socialist Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, testifying for 14 hours yesterday before a Parliamentary Commission, stopped just short of accusing the conservative popular party of lying for electoral gain about attacks that killed 191 people. The investigation showed Islamic militants were responsible, not Basque separatist guerrilla group EIA as former Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar had initially insisted. "It was all deceit. It was massive deceit," said Zapatero, using unusually harsh words for a head of Government. When asked directly if Aznar’s popular party Government of the time lied, Zapatero said, "there is the possibility of self-deceit. I’m not going into the motives of the deceit." Popular party representative Eduardo Zaplana denied the former Government lied about the attacks. Aznar has said he blamed ETA based on what police and intelligence services told him. Zapatero, in Sober testimony notably less combative than Aznar’s 11 hours on the stand two weeks ago, said the previous Government had no facts to blame the attacks on ETA as of the afternoon of March 11 but kept doing so right up to midnight before the March 14 vote. "Today we know objectively that there was not a single piece of data pointing to ETA," Zapatero said, adding that what little there was — about the type of explosives used — turned out to be false and was cleared up by midday of the attacks. The bombers issued a videotape on the eve of the election calling the attacks revenge by Al-Qaeda for Spain sending troops to Iraq and Afghanistan. Aznar defied public opinion by backing the US invasion of Iraq and sending in Spanish troops after the fall of Saddam Hussein. This was seen as a factor in the socialists’ upset election victory over Aznar’s hand-picked successor. Zapatero, the first Spanish Prime Minister to be questioned by a Parliamentary investigation, said the Aznar Government erased all computer records about events between March 11 and March 14. "There was a massive erasing (of computer records) ... There is nothing from March 11 to March 14 in the Prime Minister’s office," Zapatero said. But, he added, "they did leave us the bill for the massive erasing." El-Pais newspaper reported the job cost (12,000 euros) 15,940 dollars. Zapatero made good on a campaign pledge and ordered the troops home from Iraq immediately after taking office in April, which critics labelled as appeasement. "I withdrew the troops from Iraq because I always said the war was illegal and because the majority of the citizens clearly and resoundingly rejected it (the war)," Zapatero said. "No Spanish Government has knelt before terror and none ever will." (AGENCIES) Some kids may have autism risk from mercury group WASHINGTON, Dec 14: Some children may have an inherited weakness that may predispose them to develop autism when exposed to mercury from fish or other sources, an environmental group said. New research shows that some children may lack sufficient levels of glutathione, an Amino acid involved in several cell processes, including the metabolism of toxins, the group said. "When compared to normal, healthy children, autistic children showed a significant impairment in every one of five measurements of the body’s ability to maintain a healthy glutathione defense," the environmental working group said in its report. "Reduced antioxidant defense may characterize a group of individuals who are demonstrably more sensitive to the effects of a range of toxic chemical exposures, and shed light on increasing rates of related learning and behavioral disorders." The group said the findings by former food and drug administration senior research scientist Dr Jill James, now of the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, reopened the debate on whether vaccines containing a mercury-based preservative called thimerosal may cause autism. "The implications of these findings extend well beyond thimerosal and autism," the report reads. Autism includes a range of symptoms including an inability to socialize normally, often repetitive behavior, and sometimes speech difficulties. There is no known cause or cure. Autism rates have increased recently in the developed world by many different measures, and health officials, parents and advocates alike are frantic to know why. Many studies have shown no link between routine immunizations and autism, including a report from an institute of medicine committee earlier this year that reviewed the published research. A member of the institute of medicine committee that wrote the report said the ewg report provided no strong evidence of any cause for autism. "This is a very small piece in a very, very big puzzle," said Dr Steven Goodman of the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine in Baltimore. "This doesn’t remotely establish what is cause and what is effect here," Goodman added in a telephone interview. "If we don’t have an infinite amount of money to study autism, which we don’t, we should be focusing on understanding the disease, understanding when the disease starts, genetic and environmental contributors, of which there could be many." (AGENCIES) |
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