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| Bush says Kerry has election amnesia JACKSONVILLE, FLA, Oct 24: US President George W Bush said Sen John Kerry had "election amnesia" that caused him to shift his stance on Iraq, as the president sought to fire up his conservative base in the key battleground .....more Afghan
Sikhs seek KABUL, Oct 24: Afghan Sikhs, slowly trickling back to their homeland after the .....more Singapore
struggles with SINGAPORE, Oct 24: American science fiction writer William Gibson once described Singapore as "disneyland with.....more Bush,
Kerry race to White WASHINGTON, Oct 24: As the race for the White House intensifies with every passing day, President George W Bush.......more |
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French teen shot by man met texting: Official NANTES, Oct 24: A 16-year-old French girl was kidnapped and shot dead in western France by a jilted boyfriend she had met by text messages sent.....more US seeks strategy with Japan for new N Korea talks TOKYO, Oct 24: US Secretary of State Colin Powell sought to hammer out a strategy with Japan today to persuade North Korea to return to six-party .....more Americans abducted, killed on Mexican roadside MEXICO CITY, Oct 24: Armed robbers shot and killed two US citizens and left a third bound on the side of a highway in Mexico’s tropical guerrero . ....more Two Palestinian militants killed in Gaza GAZA, Oct 24: Israeli forces killed two Palestinian militants in a missile strike in the southern Gaza town of Khan Younis early....more |
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Bush says Kerry has election amnesia JACKSONVILLE, FLA, Oct 24: US President George W Bush said Sen John Kerry had "election amnesia" that caused him to shift his stance on Iraq, as the president sought to fire up his conservative base in the key battleground state of Florida. Standing in a Jacksonville football field at one of his biggest campaign rallies with 10 days remaining before the election, Bush fought back against Kerry’s criticism that he rushed to war in Iraq and mishandled the conflict. He said his democratic opponent’s criticisms contradicted his Prewar vote to authorize force and his warnings that former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein was dangerous. Kerry "seems to have forgotten" his earlier stance, Bush said, and suggested the Massachusetts senator adapted it for political gain. "As his positions have evolved during the course of this campaign, you might call it election amnesia," Bush said to cheers and laughter from tens of thousands of supporters. Phil singer, spokesman for the Kerry campaign, responded that it is the President’s memory that is faulty. "If anyone has amnesia, it’s George Bush," Singer said. "He’s trying to forget the mistakes he’s made the last two years." Kerry has insisted his views on Iraq have been consistent and faults the President for alienating allies in the way he went to war and the timing of it. Bush invaded Iraq in March 2003 pledging to rid it of stockpiles of Weapons of Mass Destruction, but a Government panel has since concluded those weapons were not there. The Bush campaign billed the Jacksonville rally as its largest event yet and estimated it drew 45,000 people, a count that could not be independently verified. It was the final leg of a four-city helicopter tour that also included fort myers, Lakeland and Melbourne. The campaign clearly hoped to make a big splash as it entered the final stretch to the Nov 2 election. Appealing to so-called Nascar dads — middle-class family men who lean conservative — all four rallies were held at sports venues. At baseball stadiums in fort Myers and Lakeland, Bush dazzled the crowd by landing his helicopter in the outfield to the theme music of the movie "top gun." the Jacksonville event closed with a fireworks display. Bush emphasized a tough approach to national security and warned that Americans remained vulnerable to militants who are "still dangerous and determined to strike us again." He suggested kerry was a waverer not up to the job of handling these threats. Bush’s Melbourne speech was drowned out briefly when two f-15 fighters appeared overhead and intercepted a small private plane that had violated the President’s restricted air space. Another plane in Lakeland was escorted to a nearby airport for a similar violation. In both incidents, the pilots were questioned and later released. White House spokesman trent duffy emphasized the President was never in any danger. US officials said the airspace violations appeared to have been accidental. The fight over florida, which could once again prove decisive in the race for the white house, has intensified as the candidates seek to make up for time lost in september when four hurricanes interfered with campaigning. Bush plans six more events in florida, where polls are showing a dead heat. Some pundits fear a repeat of the disputed 2000 florida vote, which was ultimately settled in bush’s favor by the Supreme Court. One protester greeted Bush’s arrival in fort Myers with a sign that said: "Hey George, we already voted, and it wasn’t for you." (AGENCIES) |
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Afghan Sikhs seek permission for overland travel to India KABUL, Oct 24: Afghan Sikhs, slowly trickling back to their homeland after the ouster of the fundamentalist Taliban regime, have appealed to the Indian Government to allow them travel between the two countries overland via Pakistan. Ravinder Singh, a member of the Afghan Gurdwara Prabhandak Committee, complained to visiting Indian newsmen here recently that most of the Sikh families could not afford direct air travel to India. "We appeal to the Indian Government to allow us entry overland via Pakistan," he said. The Indian Government had imposed a ban on overland entry of Afghan Sikhs following warning from intelligence agencies that Pakistani agencies were trying to infiltrate Sikh extremists in the garb of Afghan Sikhs. Restrictions had also been enforced as after the fall of the Taliban regime in 2001, Afghan security agencies had come across tell-tale evidence of some Sikh youths undergoing arms training in ISI-run camps near Kabul and in northern Afghanistan. While, not ruling out reports of "few misguided youths" undergoing training in such camps, the Afghan Sikh leaders said these were Sikh expatrites living in Europe and Australia and not the Afghan Sikhs. Ravinder Singh said Sikhs and Hindus, who once constituted a population of over 500,000 in Afghanistan, now account for only a hundred families that had come back after the ouster of the Taliban regime, still faced hardships in getting back their homes, shops and other assets. Most of the Sikh and Hindu families, who have been living in Afghanistan for over a 1,000 years, have settled, besides capital Kabul, in the Pushtu heartland of southern Afghanistan with a fair sprinkling in Jalalabad, Khost, Kandahar, Ghazni and few in Mazar-i-Sharif and Kunduz in northern areas. Afghan Sikhs and Hindus were predominant in Afghanistan’s unique "money market" working as commission money changers, while others had shops and trading establishments. However, after the fall of Najibullah regime, the Sikhs and Hindus fell prey to bloody inter-Mujaheddin warfare. "For the past few years we have been trickling back and trying to reclaim our properties. We are facing lot of hardships," the Sikh leaders said. "But we are upbeat. The recent events taking place in the country are very positive," said Avtar Singh, another prominent Sikh leader. Sikh leaders in the provincial capital of Ghazni said they had turned out enmass to vote in the recent first ever Afghan elections. An election meeting addressed by interim leader Hamid Karzai had witnessed a turnout of almost over 40,000 people, he said. "It would have been unthinkable in the country just a few years back. There are also other changes, the girls are going back to schools and reconstruction work is at its peak," Singh said as he painted a positive picture of the return of other Sikh and Hindus families back to Afghanistan. (PTI) |
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Singapore struggles with image as executioner SINGAPORE, Oct 24: American science fiction writer William Gibson once described Singapore as "disneyland with the death penalty". Recent developments underscore the point. Last week a 24-year-old Australian man of Vietnamese origin lost an appeal to escape the gallows, rights group amnesty international challenged the city-state to disclose its execution rate, and the High Court will soon decide whether to hang 3 people caught in a high-society drug ring in Singapore. "The Government is really not softening up when it comes to drug crimes or on executions," said Chua Beng huat, a sociology professor at National University of Singapore who has written several books on Singapore’s politics. Though Singapore is loosening social controls — easing censorship rules, allowing greater freedom of speech and championing a more open society — it is maintaining a hard line on crime and executions. Amnesty, which seeks a worldwide ban on state executions, says Singapore’s death row is shrouded in secrecy. In the country itself, there is little public debate about the issue and even less information on how the process is carried out. In the pre-dawn hours of any Friday, someone could be on their way to the gallows at Changi prison. No one knows for sure. Amnesty says about 400 people have been hanged in Singapore since 1991, most for drug trafficking. This adds up to possibly the highest execution rate in the world relative to the island’s 4.2 million population. Singapore wants to shatter the secretive image of its death row and insists there is nothing to hide. It released a barrage of data in February to counter an amnesty report, denying most of those hanged were foreigners from poorer countries and backing this up with data showing 64 per cent of those executed from 1993 to 2003 were Singaporeans. "The Singapore Government has in place a tough but transparent law and order system for the safety and security of its citizens, residents and those who visit," Freddy Hong, a Home Affairs spokeswoman, told . Information on executions is not regularly published, and even Singapore’s former Premier Goh Chok Tong said he did not know how many people were hung when queried in a BBC interview in September last year, putting the figure for that year at 70-80. His office later said the actual number at the time was 10. "We have actually stopped debating this particular policy. The pressure for more disclosure comes from international organisations. The local community is quite neutral on this issue," said Ho Khai Leong, a Professor at the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies. Singapore, ruled by the people’s action party for four decades, is often described as having a theme-park feel because of its tidy streets, orderly living and low crime rates. It has had capital punishment for murder since its days as a British colony. Those found guilty of kidnapping, treason and certain firearm offences may also face the gallows, although rights activists say 70 percent of hangings are for drug offences. Amnesty data shows that from 1994 to 1999, an average of 13.6 executions were carried out per million people, three times higher than the next country on the list, Saudi Arabia. A day after amnesty challenged Singapore last Tuesday to disclose the total number of executions this year, the Government divulged for the first time that 6 people had been hanged from January to September and 19 for the whole of 2003. Requests for these statistics had been turned down before amnesty’s statement. "This is a step forward, but the Government should disclose a lot more than the bare number of executions," amnesty’s UK-based southeast Asian researcher Tim Parritt told . From 1991-2003, an average of 32 people were hanged a year, according to a combination of amnesty and Government data. Last year’s 19 executions would be the lowest in 6 years. "We call for a full breakdown — year by year — to illuminate to what extent the death penalty may be falling disproportionately on more vulnerable sections of society — whether by reason of the nationality, educational or professional background, socio-economic status etc," Parritt added. The public generally supports Singapore’s tough laws — including the death penalty, bans on pornography and curbs on political dissent — as part of a social contract that in return has delivered years of economic prosperity. (AGENCIES) |
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Bush, Kerry race to White House gets high-cost WASHINGTON, Oct 24: As the race for the White House intensifies with every passing day, President George W Bush and senator John Kerry have spent a whopping 1.2 billion dollars on blitzkrieg election campaign so far, leaving six other Presidential aspirants sulking and fuming for being virtually blacked out by electronic and print media. The spending on campaign ADs on the television channels and radio stations has touched a record breaking 500 million dollars. The remaining amount has been spent on volunteers, posters, attorneys and other print material, besides election offices. The media focus is only on republican and democrat candidates while others have been given a raw deal. Only Mr Ralph Nader of the reforms party occasionally gets mention in the media for he is being seen as a threat to senator Kerry in swing states. He is on the ballot paper in more than three dozen states. Mr Michael Badnarik (libertarian), Mr David Cobb (Green party), Mr Michael A Peroutka, Mr James Harris and Mr Walter F Brown of smaller political groups are also in the fray, but do not find mention anywhere. Their names are on the ballot papers only in few states, thus getting marginalised in the Hullabaloo campaign of Mr Bush and Mr Kerry. Ms Ruth Bennett, the libertarian candidate for the Governor of Washington state, admitted that her party has no access to corporate money. Ms Bennett, who is championing the cause of gay marriage, accused the republicans and democrats of marginalising smaller parties. These parties have systematically eliminated other political rivals and groups. Mr Christian Sunderman of the northwest passage consultancy claimed that about a half billion had been spent on television advertisements. She said 200 million dollars were spent by Mr Bush to convince voters that senator Kerry is weak to protect the interests of the United States. She said at many places republicans helped Mr Ralph Nader to get required number of votes to be on the ballot. Mr Bush and Mr Kerry had collected more than 800 million dollars during the fund raising campaign, which has smashed all previous records. Mr Ralph has also raised around 14 million dollars. The democrats allege that he is being funded by the corporate sector to damage his chances. Campaign ADs of Mr Bush and Mr Kerry have deluged battleground states. More than 5,500 TV ADs were aired in Miami and 3700 in Tampa bay area, which are witnessing thrilling contest between the two rivals. The TV ADs were mainly telecast in 50 cities located in ten states with 131 electoral votes. The Bush camp has stopped ad campaigns in Arizona and Missouri, where polls show that Mr Bush was ahead of Mr Kerry. Similarly in Washington, Mr Kerry maintained a lead, allowing his supporters to focus in other battleground states. Colorado, which was not expected to be close between Mr Bush and Mr Kerry, has now become focus of both the sides and they are advertising very heavily here. For weeks each party has released one AD a day. Neither side wants to let a commercial or allegation go unchallenged for fear of looking weak to supporters and undecided voters. "It has gotten so cheap and so easy to produce commercials and get them quickly on the televisions," says John Geer, professor at the Vanderbilt university in Nashville. Most are restatements and repackaging of things they have said before. The AD campaign is expected to continue till November two. "The elbows will only get sharper and the messages only come quicker," media analysts said. (UNI) |
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French teen shot by man met texting: Official NANTES, Oct 24: A 16-year-old French girl was kidnapped and shot dead in western France by a jilted boyfriend she had met by text messages sent over a cellular telephone, a Public Prosecutor in the area said. Her 43-year-old kidnapper also killed himself with a gun yesterday, a local police source said. He and the girl, Aurelie, were found in his car in a village in the coastal town of Jard-sur-Mer, the source said. The kidnapper, a resident of the northern town of Dieppe called Bruno, met the girl by sending SMS text messages. They had met several times before aurelie decided to break off the relationship, the police source said. Jean-luc-Beck, a prosecutor in the nearby town Sables-d’olonne. Said the kidnapper broke into Aurelie’s home yesterday morning, tied up her mother in the basement and imprisoned the girl. Aurelie then apparently tried to escape because witnesses said they saw her running through her town’s streets before being forced into a white renault car by a stranger. (AGENCIES) |
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US seeks strategy with Japan for new N Korea talks TOKYO, Oct 24: US Secretary of State Colin Powell sought to hammer out a strategy with Japan today to persuade North Korea to return to six-party talks on scrapping its suspected nuclear weapons programmes. With North Korea threatening to bolster its atomic arsenal, Powell wants to prod negotiating partners to exert pressure on the reclusive state which has refused since June to resume the talks that also involve China, South Korea and Russia. "We are in the closest contact with our four partners," the top US diplomat told reporters en route to Tokyo. "I think they are steady and steadfast even though we are constantly looking for any adjustment that might be made in respective positions that would allow us to achieve faster progress." The six parties to the talks — North and South Korea, the United States, Japan, China and Russia — have met three times but failed to meet for a fourth round planned for September. Most analysts agree the north is waiting to see who wins the Nov 2 US Presidential election. Most analysts predict North Korea, along with Iran, will present the world with its worst proliferation crisis in the next few years and the Bush administration has been under fire to make a breakthrough. Powell, who will also visit China and South Korea on his first trip to the region in 18 months, hopes to revive the six-way talks although on the eve of his meetings in Japan he rejected North Korea’s latest conditions for a resumption. Among other things, North Korea demanded the United States drop what it sees as a confrontational policy aimed at ousting its leadership and cited a US-led naval exercise to be held on Monday off Japan as evidence of its intentions. Powell said the United States has repeatedly vowed not to attack North Korea and sought to downplay its fears over the military practice that is aimed at stifling Pyongyang’s suspected proliferation. "It does not threaten North Korea. It does not threaten the sovereignty of North Korea or the welfare of North Korea," he said. (AGENCIES) |
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Americans abducted, killed on Mexican roadside MEXICO CITY, Oct 24: Armed robbers shot and killed two US citizens and left a third bound on the side of a highway in Mexico’s tropical guerrero state, the US embassy said. Suspects were arrested, Mexican police said. The Americans, two women and a man, were assaulted in their vehicle on Thursday while traveling on a highway in Guerrero, home to the famous resort towns of Acapulco and Ixtapa, US embassy spokesman Jim Dickmeyer told yesterday. "Three US citizens were taken and two were killed," said Dickmeyer. "They were in a car traveling in Guerrero state." The dead were 22-year-old Reynaldo Valdez, from Houston, and 16-year-old Ashley lynn Dininger, from Miami. The third American, Vanessa Burgos, 22, was able to make her way to authorities after being left bound at the side of the road by her assailants, who escaped in the Americans’ car. US consular officials in the inland town of Iguala were helping the survivor of the attack, Dickmeyer said. The presumed attackers were apprehended after burgos gave them a description of the car she had been traveling in. Mexican police were not immediately available for comment. (AGENCIES) |
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Two Palestinian militants killed in Gaza GAZA, Oct 24: Israeli forces killed two Palestinian militants in a missile strike in the southern Gaza town of Khan Younis early today, Palestinian medics said. They said the two were killed and several others wounded when Israeli forces fired a missile at armed men in Khan Younis. Several people were wounded, including civilians, they added. Military sources said Israeli forces identified several armed men in Khan Younis and fired a missile at them. The sources said the missile was fired at a group of six militants, hitting three of them. Palestinian medics said a third militant was critically wounded and might die during the night. The Jewish settlement bloc of Gush Katif is adjacent to Khan Younis and is often subject to night-time attacks by Palestinian militants. Gunmen fired several mortar bombs at the settlement on Saturday. They caused light damage but no one was hurt. Israel’s army has been attempting to crush Palestinian militants in the Gaza strip ahead of a planned withdrawal next year. Militant groups say they plan to wage attacks against the troops to ensure the withdrawal is carried out under fire. (AGENCIES) Finder of iceman found dead in Austrian Alps VIENNA, Oct 24: The man who 13 years ago discovered the frozen remains of a prehistoric iceman in an Alpine glacier was found dead in the Austrian Alps today, eight days after he went missing, rescue authorities said. Helmut Simon, the German who found the 5,300-year-old mummified body while hiking on the border of Austria and Italy in 1991, disappeared on Oct 15 after setting off alone on an expedition in the bad Hofgastein region in southwestern Austria. "He was found at an altitude of around 2,200 metres (7,220 ft), apparently having fallen around 100 metres," a member of the bad Hofgastein mountain rescue team told . Rescue officials found and recovered the body of the experienced 67-year-old mountaineer after a local hunter notified them of a mysterious red spot high up on the 2,300-metre Gaiskarkogel mountain. Simon, 67, and his wife, Erika, from Nuremberg in Germany found the Neolithic iceman on the 3,000-metre (9,000-feet) high Similaun glacier in the Tyrolean Oetz valley. The mummy was named "Oetzi" after the valley. (AGENCIES) Two civilians killed in clashes in Iraq’s Samarra BAGHDAD, Oct 24: An Iraqi 17-year-old girl and an 11-year-old boy were killed and four people wounded in clashes between US troops and insurgents in Samarra, north of Baghdad, police said today. Police said the two were killed on the northern outskirts of the city, 100 km from the Iraqi capital, in the fighting last evening. Witnesses said a US military humvee vehicle also damaged. A US military spokeswoman had no immediate comment. US troops and Iraqi national guards have maintained a strong presence in most parts of the Sunni Muslim city since an assault early this month that drove insurgents off the streets. The Iraqi Government said Samarra had been pacified in that assault, part of a plan to retake all rebel areas by political or military means before elections planned for January. But residents say US troops and insurgents Skirmish daily in the city, which remains under curfew at night. (AGENCIES) Citigroup on list to help Japan’s Daikyo: Paper TOKYO, Oct 24: Japan’s state-backed turnaround body has named US financial group citigroup inc. Among four candidates to sponsor the revival of condominium builder Daikyo inc., the Nihon Keizai newspaper said on Sunday. The Industrial Revitalization Corp of Japan (IRCJ) will choose between citigroup and its partner, Japanese builder Haseko corp., Japanese leasing firm Orix corp and US investment banks Morgan Stanley or Merrill Lynch by end-December after reviewing their plans for Daikyo, the paper said. The IRCJ said last month it would help Daikyo, burdened with debt after an expansion into money-losing businesses such as golf-course operations. The turnaround body is seeking some 176 billion yen ( 1.64 billion) in assistance for Daikyo. Merrill and Morgan Stanley are likely to seek partnerships with Japanese property developers in their bids, the paper said, citing sources close to the matter. Japan last month ordered Citigroup to close its local private banking business after uncovering manipulative lending practices and a failure to screen for possible money laundering. The US bank submitted a business improvement plan to regulators last week. Chief Executive Officer Charles Prince will on Monday meet Hirofumi Gomi, head of Japan’s regulator the financial services agency, sources familiar with the matter said. (AGENCIES) US-Russian ISS trio lands softly in pitch-dark ALMATY, Oct 24: A Soyuz capsule made a soft landing in complete darkness in the steppes of Kazakhstan early today, bringing a US-Russian space trio back to earth from the international space station. "All is fine, it was apparently a soft landing. They landed as planned near Arkalyk at 0435 Moscow time (0605 ist)," a spokesman for mission control said by telephone from Moscow. The crew of US astronaut Michael Fincke and Russian Gennady Padalka who have spent almost 188 days in space, and Russian Yuri Shargin who flew to the ISS 10 days ago, landed in the pitch-dark about an hour and a half before dawn, he said. "Helicopters with medical staff and recovery teams are now hovering above the capsule, waiting for the sunlight to be able to land nearby," the mission control spokesman said. "But the crew are in constant radio contact and are saying that they feel fine." He said that according to preliminary information, the capsule’s 3-1/2 hour journey to earth had ended as planned, 88 km (56 miles) north of the Kazakh town of Arkalyk. Russian spacecraft have become the sole means of sending crew and supplies to the ISS since February 2003, when the US space shuttle fleet was grounded after the Columbia craft disintegrated over Texas, killing all seven people on board. Shuttle flights are likely to resume in May or June next year, US space officials say. (AGENCIES) |
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