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| Afghanistan’s lost heritage found in musty boxes WASHINGTON, Nov 18: More than 22,000 ancient cultural treasures from Afghanistan, feared lost or destroyed after.....more African
leaders tackle KINSHASA, Nov 18: Heads of state from 11 African countries are meeting tomorrow in Tanzania to try to reverse a....more Russian
Muslims fear NALCHIK, RUSSIA, Nov 18: Find Moscow on a map of Russia, trace a line south until you hit the Caucasus mountains....more Exiles say
Iran obtained VIENNA, Nov 18: Iran obtained weapons-grade uranium and a nuclear bomb design from a Pakistani scientist who has.......more |
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Pope health seen stable, eyes N Ireland trip VATICAN CITY, Nov 18: Pope John Paul’s health has stabilised recently, so much so that the pontiff has expressed a.....more Humans
were born to LONDON, Nov 18: Humans were born to run and evolved from ape-like creatures into the way they look today probably......more Bush plans
to give aid WASHINGTON, Nov 18: The Bush administration plans to give 20 million in aid directly to the Palestinian authority......more Bank of
Japan TOKYO, Nov 18: The Bank of Japan left its ultra-easy monetary policy unchanged on Thursday, showing it was still........more |
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Afghanistan’s lost heritage found in musty boxes WASHINGTON, Nov 18: More than 22,000 ancient cultural treasures from Afghanistan, feared lost or destroyed after decades of war and Taliban rule, have been taken out of dusty crates and safes in Kabul and inventoried for safekeeping, a US archeologist said. The objects, including 2,500 years’ worth of gold and silver coins and ancient sculptures, represent a "silk road" of goods once traded from China, India, Egypt, Greece, Rome and ancient Afghanistan. "By the end of the Taliban’s reign, most of us thought there was nothing left, just destruction and despair," said national geographic fellow and archeologist Fred Hiebert, who led an inventory project of the items, said yesterday. Many of the treasures were once on display in the Kabul museum, which was shelled several times and lost its roof and door. Inventory cards were lost by fire and neglect, making it difficult to track down any of the items. "This project has been an enormous boost for Afghanistan -finding the treasures intact and then working with the outstanding team to inventory each one of them, preserving our heritage for our children," said Afghanistan’s Minister of Information and Culture, Sayed Makhdoom Raheen, in a statement released by national geographic. Hiebert told reporters in a conference call he hoped the detailed inventory would make it easier for international law enforcement groups to track down precious items still missing. Some looted artifacts have turned up in recent years at auction houses in Tokyo, London and New York, and Hiebert hopes these can be returned to Afghanistan. The bulk of the newly inventoried items were found in April 2003 when a Presidential palace vault in Kabul was cracked open to reveal a trove of famed, in tact bactrian gold pieces. But many more artifacts, including giant Buddhist sculptures and ancient ivory statues, have been found in recent months in unmarked boxes and safes stashed for safekeeping during the Soviet-led coup and then during the years of hardline Taliban rule. After doing a first inventory of the bactrian gold pieces, Hiebert was surprised when he was asked to look at 20 other boxes found to contain precious objects that silk road camels once carried between China and Rome and elsewhere. "I looked at the eyes of the museum curators who had not seen these (artifacts) for 25 years and it was a very emotional experience. They saw their own heritage coming to life," he said. Later, more trunks of precious artifacts were found in another location, which hiebert declined to name because of security concerns. Fearing they would find only objects smashed by the Taliban which had destroyed many pre-Islamic objects, these trunks were filled with hundreds and hundreds of sculptures and carvings from Buddhist religious structures, Hiebert said. None of the newly uncovered items is yet on display in Afghanistan, mostly due to security concerns but also because a suitable exhibit space has not been found yet. The old Kabul Museum is on the edge of the city and Hiebert says there are hopes a new museum will be built in a central location. One option is to stage an international tour of these objects until a new museum space is built. (AGENCIES) |
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African leaders tackle peace in great lakes KINSHASA, Nov 18: Heads of state from 11 African countries are meeting tomorrow in Tanzania to try to reverse a decade of bloody conflict in central Africa’s war-torn great lakes region. The two-day summit is intended to secure lasting peace and promote development in the region, where millions died in the 1990’s from war, genocide and turmoil. "This meeting will go beyond pure rhetoric. The leaders will sign a decree and there is going to be a concrete action plan and people will monitor its implementation," said George Ola Davies, spokesman for the organisers of the conference, being run jointly by the UN and the 53-member African Union (AU). South African President Thabo Mbeki and Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo, also AU chairman, are to join leaders from Angola, Burundi, the Central African Republic, the Republic of Congo, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Kenya, Rwanda, Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia in Dares Salaam. Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi and Sudan were already embroiled in civil wars, but violence mushroomed in the region after the 1994 genocide in Rwanda, when 800,000 tutsis and moderate hutus were slaughtered by extremist hutus in a 100-day killing spree. Ethnic conflict spread after peace was restored in Rwanda when millions of refugees fled into neighbouring Burundi and the D R C Rwanda invaded the D R C in 1996 and 1998, ostensibly to hunt down Hutu rebels that fled after taking part in the genocide. Transitional Governments in Burundi and the D R C are struggling with fragile peace deals and to lead their countries to 2005 elections. Meanwhile, Uganda and Sudan are trying to end civil wars of 18 and 22 years, respectively. But leaders are being called to look beyond securing peace, toward promoting democracy, good governance and development. "Such ambitious objectives require an iron will. It demands a steadfast determination to turn your backs once and for all on the evils of division, domination and confrontation," said Ibrahima fall, special representative of the UN Secretary-General to the great lakes region. Leaders are expected to sign a document known as the Dares Salaam declaration that specifies the goals, which Foreign Ministers from the nations have been drafting this week. One analyst welcomed the meeting, but warned leaders had made many promises before and must be pressured to keep them. "There are a number of agreements that are already in place and if people stuck to these, it would help lead to peace and security," said Jim Terrie, senior analyst at the international crisis group. "Specifically, what they are not doing is using their influence over a number of belligerents to stop their activities that are blocking peace and security." (AGENCIES) |
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Russian Muslims fear witch-hunt in Caucasus NALCHIK, RUSSIA, Nov 18: Find Moscow on a map of Russia, trace a line south until you hit the Caucasus mountains, and you are pointing at the heart of Russia’s war on terror. At the eastern end of the range lie Chechnya, Ingushetia and Dagestan, off-limits to all but the best-protected visitor. To their west is north Ossetia, a Christian region still recovering from September’s massacre of hostages in the town of Beslan, where more than 330 people died, many of them children. Many foreign Governments advise against any travel to the north Caucasus, and the Kremlin is hardly more encouraging. Interior Minister Rashid Nurgaliyev said last month the entire north Caucasus region was "a breeding ground for Wahhabism" — a puritanical type of Islam practised in Saudi Arabia and now a by-word for Islamic extremism in Russia. "Devotees of Wahhabism, with foreign backing and against a background of social problems in the region, are becoming the main people who carry out terrorism," he told Russia’s lower house of Parliament. Go further west along the mountains, and people say they are fed up with being tarred by the terrorist brush, complaining that the authorities use the word "Wahhabi" to create a convenient witch-hunt. "During seven years of going to the Mosque, I’ve never met a Wahhabi — but I’ve seen lots of people calling other people Wahhabis," said a 23-year-old from Nalchik, capital of the region of Kabardino-Balkaria, who asked not to be named. The region’s name, like that of neighbouring Karachayevo-Cherkessia, only hints at the complex ethnic Jigsaw beneath the surface. Soviet officials created the regions in a deliberate attempt to force rival clans together and Pacify them by destroying their ethnic identity. Entire peoples were also deported to central Asia in their hundreds of thousands. The result in Nalchik and Cherkessk, the capital of Karachayevo-Cherkessia, is a constant fear of ethnic conflict and separatism and a wariness of giving Islam free rein. Chechen violence and the Beslan bloodbath have kept those fears alive. Islam is barely visible in Nalchik and Cherkessk. Residents drink alcohol and eat pork and there is no call to prayer — a chant that resonates five times a day across the Muslim world. "For 70 years they said there was no God. People of 50 and above have lived for 40 years under the Soviet Union. You can’t just change people’s attitudes," said Ismail-Haji Bastanov, rector of the Imam-abu-Khanif institute in Cherkessk. "Once they took Islam away from us, people began to drink," he added. Asked if he enjoyed the odd cognac, he merely smiled. Cherkessk’s only Mosque lies on the outskirts of town, almost deserted in an orchard where an old shepherd tends sheep. Local Muslims criticise the authorities for neglecting the Mosque while funding a second, new Russian orthodox Church in town. Its gold domes sit gleaming in the Church garden, waiting for a crane, while the Imam himself rebuilds the Mosque wall, trowel in hand. "I don’t suppose you know how to plaster a wall?," he asked. In Nalchik, a grid of dusty streets closer to Baghdad than Moscow, there are two Mosques — but five Churches. Some Muslims say they are wary of attending prayers after security forces began noting the names of those who turned up. Security forces also drew up a list of 500 people suspected of belonging to "Jamaats", or Wahhabi fighting units, which would find ample cover in the rugged terrain around Elbrus, Europe’s highest mountain. One such Jamaat, calling itself "Yarmuk", posted a statement on the Chechen rebel web site www.Kavkazcenter.Com in September, claiming responsibility for killing two policemen. The statement also accused authorities of planting evidence on the bodies of two dead fighters in an attempt to link the group to a murder of a family in nearby Stavropol. Many Nalchik Muslims say they do not back the insurgents but regard the Wahhabi list as a ploy to crack down on dissidents. "I know a couple of guys who are on the list but they’re not into violence," said a salesman at one of Nalchik’s three Muslim shops, selling religious clothing, souvenirs and trinkets. "They just dress conservatively and read the Koran and let their beards grow. That sort of thing," he said, handing over a leaflet explaining that Islam does not support terrorism. People laughed at village meetings when told of the list of 500 Wahhabis, online Islamic newspaper Islaminkbr.Com reported. At a Rowdy town hall meeting called after a spate of murders in Cherkessk, a local deputy challenged Dmitry Kozak, President Vladimir Putin’s special representative in the Caucasus, to explain why so-called Wahhabis were always first in the frame. "Who is a Wahhabi in our republic? I can’t understand why officials like the Interior Minister keep coming on television and saying the Wahhabis around here celebrated Beslan and so on," he said to applause from a crowd of distraught relatives whose loved ones had gone missing, presumed murdered. "Yes, there are individual Wahhabis. But there are extremists in every society," he said. (AGENCIES) |
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Exiles say Iran obtained bomb design, uranium VIENNA, Nov 18: Iran obtained weapons-grade uranium and a nuclear bomb design from a Pakistani scientist who has admitted to selling nuclear secrets abroad, an exiled Iranian opposition group said. The group, which has given accurate information before, also said Iran is secretly enriching uranium at a military site previously unknown to the United Nations, despite promising France, Britain and Germany that it would halt all such work. "(Abdul Qadeer) Khan gave Iran a quantity of Heu (highly enriched uranium) in 2001, so they already have some," Farid Soleiman, a senior spokesman for the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), told reporters yesterday. "I would doubt it was given enough for a weapon," he added. Soleiman said Khan, who ran a global nuclear black market until it was shut down earlier this year, also gave Iran a Chinese-developed warhead design sometime between 1994 and 1996. The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has said Khan’s network gave the bomb design to Libya, and investigators are trying to find out whether Iran got it too. Iran made no comment about the group’s accusations, but has in the past denied seeking parts for nuclear arms or hiding atomic facilities. However, if substantiated, the accusations could damage iran’s efforts to escape censure for its nuclear programmes. Those efforts culminated on Sunday when Iran promised the European Union to freeze its enrichment programme, sparing it a referral to the UN Security Council for possible sanctions. The United States accuses Iran of secretly developing atomic weapons. Tehran denies the charge. Washington said it was not in a position to evaluate the Iranian exile group’s allegations, but said the group had given accurate information in the past. "It is our hope that as the IAEA continues its investigation into Iran’s nuclear program, that it will take all credible information about Iran’s nuclear activities into account, including these reports, and then investigate them seriously," US State Department spokesman Adam Ereli said. An EU diplomat said: "If true, it’s significant." IAEA spokesman Mark Gwozdecky said the IAEA followed up "every solid lead". That will not be easy because the UN agency has been denied access to Khan, who is under house arrest in Pakistan. Pakistan declined to comment. Diplomats in Vienna say the NCRI exiles have been the best source of information on Tehran’s undeclared nuclear programme. The group established its reputation as a whistleblower in August 2002 when it revealed an undeclared enrichment plant at Natanz and another site at Arak. It has revealed other sites. The NCRI said Iran was enriching uranium, purifying it for use for fuel or bombs, at a site in northeastern Tehran under a covert arms programme. "It continues to enrich uranium as we speak," Soleiman said. He said the site had an unknown number of centrifuges, which purify uranium by spinning at supersonic speeds. Soleiman said Iran wanted a bomb by the middle of next year. Israel estimates Iran will be "nuclear capable" in 2007. He said the enrichment site, called the centre for the development of advanced defence technology, was run by the Defence Ministry and located in Lavizan, near where the United States suspects Iran conducted secret nuclear work before demolishing all the buildings and carting off the rubble. He said the NCRI sent the IAEA a letter about the 60-acre top-secret site a few days ago. Iran charged four people on Wednesday with spying on its atomic sites, state television reported. "These are established figures which makes it hard to believe they were spies," the television added, but gave no further hints as to their identity. Iran said in August it had arrested dozens of spies, several of them for passing on nuclear secrets. It was unclear whether the four were among these. (AGENCIES) |
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Pope health seen stable, eyes N Ireland trip VATICAN CITY, Nov 18: Pope John Paul’s health has stabilised recently, so much so that the pontiff has expressed a desire to make at least two major trips abroad next year, including one to northern Ireland. The 84-year-old Pope and his aides have come to terms with the rigours and limits of Parkinson’s disease. Although it has taken its toll over the past 10 years, it seems to have steadied recently, making planning, Albeit tentative, easier. Interviews with aides and recent visitors to the Pope and observations by reporters paint a picture of a papacy that certainly is scaled down but hardly gasping its final breath. As proof of this, the Vatican is actively entertaining at least two high-profile trips next year — one to Ireland and northern Ireland and the other to the Pope’s native Poland. Irish Church leaders and politicians at a Rome conference last week said they found the Pope, now in the 27th year of his reign, much more alert and in good spirits than they expected. "I have to say that I found him in very good form, very alert and we talked about a number of issues, including the middle east," said Irish Foreign Minister Dermot Ahern. "I reminded him that the Government and the people of Ireland would very much welcome a visit," he said. Although the pope was officially non-committal, one Prelate told the Pontiff told him: "God willing, I will come." The Vatican and the Irish Church see a stop in northern Ireland, a region blighted by sectarianism, as the natural completion of his first and only trip to Ireland, in 1979. Sectarian violence prevented him from visiting northern Ireland then but a fragile peace process now makes it possible. He would become the first Pope to venture into a province where for generations the protestant majority persecuted the Catholic minority and derided the Pope. British diplomatic sources said London, which would have to mount a big security operation, was willing to give the green light for a stop in Armagh, most likely in late spring. Polish primate cardinal Jozef Glemp recently visited the Vatican and later said the Pope had told him he would visit in mid-June, health permitting. As tentative as they may be now, the travel plans illustrate aides are confident they can manage the latest phase of the papacy. The Pope is a pale shadow of his former robust self. Parkinson’s has made it difficult for him to read more than a few paragraphs at a time but he still has the stamina to preside at long liturgical ceremonies and other events. The solution adapted is for him to read the start of his speech, an aide reads the bulk of it, and the Pope concludes it. What seemed an ominous foreboding only a year ago is now accepted as routine. Crippling arthritis has consigned the former mountain climber and jogger to a wheeled chair but he still receives visitors every day and appears in public at least twice a week. To an outsider, the rigidity of his facial muscles make him look distant, severe, out of touch and maybe even not in charge. But Ahern, Portuguese President Jorge Sampaio and other recent visitors say they found him surprisingly alert. As if to comment on Sampaio’s surprise, the Pope, with the timing of the former actor he once was, quipped last week at the end of their talks: "You see. I can still speak Portuguese." (AGENCIES) |
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Humans were born to run, scientists say LONDON, Nov 18: Humans were born to run and evolved from ape-like creatures into the way they look today probably because of the need to cover long distances and compete for food, scientists have said. From tendons and ligaments in the legs and feet that act like springs and skull features that help prevent overheating, to well-defined buttocks that stabilise the body, the human anatomy is shaped for running. "We do it because we are good at it. We enjoy it and we have all kinds of specialisations that permit us to run well," said Daniel Liberman, a professor of anthropology at Harvard university in Massachusetts. "There are all kinds of features that we see in the human body that are critical for running," he told yesterday. Liberman and Dennis Bramble, a biology professor at the university of Utah, studied more than two dozen traits that increase humans’ ability to run. Their research is reported in the science journal nature. They suspect modern humans evolved from their ape-like ancestors about 2 million years ago so they could hunt and scavenge for food over large distances. But the development of physical features that enabled humans to run entailed a trade off — the loss of traits that were useful for being a tree-climber. "We are very confident that strong selection for running —which came at the expense of the historical ability to live in trees — was instrumental in the origin of the modern human body form," bramble said in a statement. The conventional theory is that running was a by-product of bipedalism, or the ability to walk upright on two legs, that evolved in ape-like human ancestors called australopithecus at least 4.5 million years ago. But Liberman and Bramble argue that it took a few million more years for the running physique to evolve, so the ability to walk cannot explain the transition. "There were 2.5 million to 3 million years of bipedal walking without ever looking like a human, so is walking going to be what suddenly transforms the hominid body?" said Bramble. "We’re saying ‘no, walking won’t do that, but running will."’ If natural selection did not favour running, the scientists believe humans would still look a lot like apes. "Running has substantially shaped human evolution. Running made us human — at least in the anatomical sense," Bramble added. Among the features that set humans apart from apes to make them good runners are longer legs to take longer strides, shorter forearms to enable the upper body to counterbalance the lower half during running and larger disks which allow for better shock absorption. Big buttocks are also important. "Have you ever looked at an ape? they have no buns," said Bramble. Humans lean forward when they run and the buttocks "keep you from pitching over on your nose each time a foot hits the ground," he added. (AGENCIES) |
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Bush plans to give aid to Palestinians:Sources WASHINGTON, Nov 18: The Bush administration plans to give 20 million in aid directly to the Palestinian authority, bypassing congressional restrictions as part of a renewed push for peace in the Middle East, sources familiar with the plan said. The administration notified key congressional committees yesterday of its plans, which could be announced when outgoing US Secretary of State Colin Powell meets with Palestinian officials in the West Bank early next week. A congressional aide said yesterday the move does not require congressional approval, just congressional notification. But key lawmakers are already raising objections that could force the White House to reconsider. The sources said the money is part of a concerted push by the Bush administration and its European allies to help the Palestinians organize January Presidential elections to choose a successor to Yasser Arafat, who died last week. The 20 million in US funding, the sources said, would be overseen by Palestinian Finance Minister Salam Fayyad, a former International Monetary Fund official with strong US backing, and could be used to pay Palestinian authority salaries. Critics in Congress say stringent safeguards are needed to ensure that US taxpayer money is not siphoned off by corrupt Palestinian officials or used by terrorist groups. Tom delay, the powerful republican leader in the House of Representatives, is among those who have opposed providing direct aid to the Palestinians until they have made progress on reforms, according to a spokesman. One aide complained, "there was no mechanism for monitoring." The move comes less than a week after President George W Bush set a four-year goal of seeing a Palestinian state established and he and British Prime Minister Tony Blair vowed to mobilize international support to help make it happen now that Arafat is dead. Bush administration officials told lawmakers that Bush planned to use his waiver authority to provide the money directly to the Palestinian authority "to jump-start the peace process," a senior congressional aide said. American aid typically goes through international groups that bypass the Palestinian authority, although Washington contributed directly to a fund used by the authority in the first year after the Oslo peace accord was launched in 1993. In an earlier push for peace in July 2003, the Bush administration announced a similar package of direct aid for the Palestinian authority in a bid to strengthen the hand of then-Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas. Abbas is now likely to be the main Fatah movement’s candidate to succeed Arafat as President on a platform of renewed peace talks. US officials hope through aid to gradually reduce the influence of the militant group Hamas, which has garnered grass-roots support with a network of schools and welfare services that fill gaps left by inefficient Palestinian authority institutions. Israel gets about 3 billion a year from Washington, whereas the Palestinians get an average of about 75 million. (AGENCIES) |
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Bank of Japan keeps monetary policy unchanged TOKYO, Nov 18: The Bank of Japan left its ultra-easy monetary policy unchanged on Thursday, showing it was still committed to fighting deflation. The decision to keep the market awash with liquidity by leaving the target volume of current account deposits at 30-35 trillion ( 288.3- 336.4 billion) yen was by unanimous vote and widely expected by financial markets. The BoJ also reiterated that it would provide even more liquidity if needed. "Should there be a risk of financial market instability, such as a surge in liquidity demand, the bank will provide more liquidity irrespective of the above target," it said in a statement issued after a two-day meeting. But with the decision already widely expected by financial markets, attention was already shifting to a monthly economic report and news conference by BoJ Governor Toshihiko Fukui later in the day. Some believe Fukui and the rest of the nine-member board may have turned more cautious about the economic outlook after weak growth data last week, which could mean the BoJ will keep its current accommodative stance for much longer. Japan’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) grew only 0.1 percent in July-September from the previous quarter in real, price-adjusted terms. That translated into an annualised rate of 0.3 percent, well below US growth of 3.7 percent in the same period and much slower than Japan’s decade-high pace of more than 6 percent in the final quarter of last year and the first quarter of 2004. The BoJ has vowed to hold rates near zero by keeping the market awash with liquidity until it is sure deflation, which has troubled Japan’s economy for over five years, has ended. Earlier this year, some had forecast a policy shift as early as the first quarter of 2005, but with a rising yen and high oil prices dampening the outlook for exports, many now say the BoJ will keep policy loose until early 2006. Current account deposits comprise bank reserves and reserves put up by other financial institutions such as brokerages that are held at the Central bank. The target, used as a benchmark for the amount of liquidity that commercial banks have on hand, has been unchanged since January. The BoJ will release its monthly economic report at 3 p.m. (0600 gmt), followed by a news conference by BoJ Governor Toshihiko Fukui starting at 3:30 p.m. (0630 gmt). (AGENCIES) Aid worker Hassan’s body found in Iraq-Australia: PM CANBERRA, Nov 18: A body found in the Iraqi city of Falluja appears to be that of kidnapped British aid worker Margaret Hassan, Australian Prime Minister John Howard said today. "The body found in Falluja appears to have been Margaret’s and the video of the execution of a western woman appears on all the available information to have been genuine," Howard told Parliament today. Howard did not elaborate and a spokesman for his office also said he had nothing to add. Hassan, 59, was kidnapped on Oct 19 as she was being driven to work in Baghdad, where she worked as Director of the Australian operation of aid organisation care international. It has never been clear who seized Hassan or where she was held. A video released to Arabic news channel Al-Jazeera last week showed a hooded figure shooting a blindfolded woman in the head. Hassan’s family, who said on Tuesday she was probably dead, have appealed to the kidnappers to reveal the location of her body. The times newspaper in Britain reported on its website (www.Timesonline.Co.Uk) today that a mutilated corpse of a western woman found by US Marines in Falluja was being DNA tested to see if it was the remains of Hassan. The times reported that the disembowelled body, with its hands and lower legs cut off, had been found in west Falluja on Sunday. It said a female Marine who photographed the body said her unit was "80 per cent" convinced it was Hassan. (AGENCIES) Smoking ban screens bigger worries for Irish pubs DUBLIN, Nov 18: Publicans blame Ireland’s pioneering smoking ban for their woes, but the evidence is sketchy and the decline of the famous Irish pub is nothing new. As Britain prepares to outlaw smoking in many public places opponents of the legislation will be quick to point to the economic impact of any ban and to Ireland, where bar sales are falling in defiance of a booming retail market. "With the inclement weather in the last week or so the smoking ban is certainly having its impact big time," said Seamus o’donoghue, president of the Vintners Federation of Ireland (VFI) which represents 6,000 rural pub owners. "Landlocked" pubs without the space to put in an outdoor smoking area have been hardest hit, he said. Amid dwindling demand for Ireland’s trademark guinness Brew, local media often reach the same conclusion but ask almost any taxi driver, beer-lover or even smoker and they will tell you it has more to do with high prices and long-term social change. Some in the hard-pressed drinks industry also admit that their problems began long before this year’s new restrictions. "People are staying at home and watching a video instead," according one country pub owner who asked not to be named for fear of offending the handful of regulars clustered watching gaelic football in the corner of an otherwise empty bar. "Our business has gone down a lot, especially in the evening time after work, but we can’t blame it all on the smoking ban," she said in hushed tones, adding that it was lovely to be in a smokeless environment after 22 years behind the bar. With the average second-hand house now costing over (300,000 euros) 389,000, regulars are increasingly opting to forego a pint of stout at their local in favour of a spot of diy followed by a glass of chardonnay in front of the new television. (AGENCIES) Tigers say they "checkmated" Chandrika Kumaratunga COLOMBO, Nov 18: Sri Lanka’s Tamil Tiger rebels today accused President Chandrika Kumaratunga of mileading the international community with "deceit" and said they had "checkmated" her over the peace process. The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) said they requested the Government to "stop cheating the international community and the country and put an end to their deceitful acts by publicly stating their policy." Through its website, LTTE said they sent this message to Kumaratunga through Norwegian peace envoys seeking a clear statement from the coalition Government’s stand on the peace process. "There is no response from the President to this request and there will be none," the LTTE said. "The LTTE through their latest request has checkmated her." LTTE accused president of projecting the image of a peace maker to the international community while appeasing her main Marxist coalition partner, JVP or People’s Liberation Front. JVP is opposed to any concessions to the LTTE and is also against devolution of power to the minority community. LTTE’s remarks came a day after Kumaratunga asked rebels to make up their mind about resuming peace talks before the end of this month and stop making excuses for delaying the start of negotiations. "This coalition, that is showing different faces to suit the people, time and place, has no intention of being involved in the peace process honestly," rebels said. (PTI) |
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