India,
Mauritius sign four agreements
PORT
LOUIS, Mar 31: India and Mauritius today
signed four agreements, including one on setting
up a joint working group for combating
international terrorism and on enhancing air
services between the two countries.
The agreements and
the Memorandum of Understandings (MoUs) were
signed in the presence of Prime Minister Manmohan
Singh, who is here on a four-day visit, and his
Mauritian counterpart Paul Reymond Berenger.
The agreement on
terrorism envisages creation of a JWG to oversee
bilateral cooperation in fighting international
terrorism and associated threats like organised
crime, illicit trafficking of arms and narcotics,
money laundering.
"Mauritius
and India have long recognised the threat posed
to international peace and security by the spread
of international terrorism, both by non-state
actors as well as by sponsoring states. Mauritius
is one of the few countries in the world to have
passed a tough anti-terrorism law which considers
even `moral support’ to terrorism as a
crime", a statement said.
The MoU on air
services agreement provides for "fifth
freedom rights" to each other. As per the
new arrangements, it would be possible for
designated Mauritian airlines to service routes
from Mauritius to Delhi or Chennai and beyond to
Karachi and Shanghai or Beijing.
Similarly, the
designated Indian Airlines would service routes
from points in India to Mauritius and beyond to
two destinations in South Africa. The designated
airlines of Mauritius would also be able to
service the Mauritius-Bangalore direct route.
Designated
airlines from both countries would be able to
operate upto 14 weekly flights under the new
arrangements. This would generate positive spin
off by improving air connectivity between the two
countries, the statement said.
Under the
agreement on combating terrorism, both India and
Mauritius will cooperate with each other by
carrying out investigation, arrest, deportation,
extradition and prosecution of identified
terrorist groups.
The JWG would
explore the means to prevent the flow of funds to
terrorist networks, especially through
non-banking channels and will also seek to deny
access of terrorist groups to arms, explosives or
radioactive substances.
According to the
agreement, the Ministry of External Affairs on
the Indian side and the Prime Minister’s
Office on the Mauritian side are the respective
nodal agencies and would involve representatives
from other agencies and organisations from each
side. The JWG would meet at least once every year
alternately in India and Mauritius.
Both sides also
signed a MoU on cooperation in environment
protection and an agreement for a ten million us
dollar credit line by EXIM bank to Mauritius
Government for construction of a sewerage in
Baie-du-Tombeau.
The MoU on
environment protection envisages creation of an
Indo-Mauritius working group that would meet
alternately in both countries for considering
concrete activities and programmes. Some of the
subjects identified were pollution control and
waste water treatment, environmental legislation
and its enforcement. (PTI)
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US
citizen kidnapped in Iraq with three Romanians
WASHINGTON,
Mar 31:
A US citizen was kidnapped in Iraq on Monday
along with three Romanian journalists, the US
State Department said.
"We can
confirm that an American citizen was taken along
with the three Romanian journalists kidnapped in
Iraq on Monday," said State Department
Spokesman Steve Pike Yesterdya, declining to
provide further information about the US citizen.
The three
Romanians were shown in a video yesterday with
guns pointed at their heads. (AGENCIES)
US to
develop hunter-killer predator drone
WASHINGTON,
Mar 31:
A new generation of the remotely piloted
predator aircraft used in Iraq, Afghanistan and
other hot spots is to be developed under a US Air
Force contract announced.
General Atomics
Aeronautical Systems Inc of San Diego,
California, is being awarded a 68.2 million deal
to develop and demonstrate the mq-9 hunter-killer
drone, the defense department said yesterday.
"The effort
will enhance the aircraft’s weapons-carrying
and targeting capability," it said.
Contract options
include retrofitting four aircraft to the new
configuration as well as communications and
ground- and flight-test facility upgrades.
The new version of
the aircraft, also known as predator B, is
designed to fly as high as 15,000 metres, twice
the altitude of its predecessor. It also carry
seven times the weapons load, according to
airforce-technology.Com, an official web site
aimed at the defense industry.
The
predator’s main mission so far has been
surveillance and reconnaissance. Starting in late
2001, some versions were equipped with
laser-guided, anti-armor Hellfire-C missiles.
Earlier this
month, the Air Force said it planned to spend 5.7
billion to buy enough predators to equip 15
squadrons over the next five years, compared with
current three squadrons.
So far, more than
100 of the aircraft, which resemble an
upside-down spoon, have been delivered to the Air
Force as part of a growing reliance on remotely
piloted aircraft, including northrop grumman
corp.’s high-flying global hawk
reconnaissance aircraft.
In November 2002,
a predator fired a missile at a civilian vehicle
carrying suspected guerrillas in Yemen, the first
such reported offensive use of the drone.
(AGENCIES)
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Forest
protester Clogs Portland, ore traffic
PORTLAND, ORE, Mar 31: A man
protesting US logging policies set up a
giant tripod structure in the middle of a
busy downtown street in Portland, Oregon,
clogging lunchtime traffic for about an
hour.
Bryan
Weideman, 18, suspended himself 4.5
metres above the street yesterday, but
was brought back to the ground when
police ‘grabbed the three portions
of the tripod and walked them back and
slowly lowered him down," said
Portland Police Sergeant Brian Schmautz.
Weideman,
who was protesting the logging of trees
burned in the 2002 biscuit fire in
southern Oregon, was arrested without
incident on charges of disorderly
conduct, Schmautz said.
The
Teepee-like structure was set up in front
of the US forest service building in
downtown Portland, a scene of frequent
protests. (AGENCIES)
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Al-Aqsa
angry at being thrown out of Palestinian
offices
RAMALLAH, Mar 31: Members of the
radical Al-Aqsa martyrs’ brigades
demonstrated angrily in the streets of
Ramallah, firing in the air, after being
ordered to quit the buildings of the
Palestinian Presidency.
The
President’s office denounced
"criminal acts" committed by
"armed elements" and promised
they would be punished, a statement said.
The
activists took to the streets late last
night, firing bursts with automatic
weapons and damaging several restaurants,
forcing a shopping centre to close, an
afp correspondent said.
They were
angry at being told to leave the Mukataa,
headquarters of the Palestinian
authority, whose security is taken care
of by regular forces.
The
Palestinian Government has pledged to end
insecurity and the "armed
chaos" reigning in the occupied
territories. (AFP)
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Israeli
envoy shot himself: Ethiopian police
ADDIS ABABA, Mar 31: Israel’s
envoy to Ethiopia was found in his hotel
room bleeding from a bullet wound and
Ethiopian police said he appeared to have
shot himself.
"There
was no indication that other parties were
involved in the injuries suffered by the
Ambassador," Ethiopian police said
in a statement read on state-run
television yesterday.
Citing
diplomatic sources, Israel radio said
Ambassador Doron Grossman was believed to
have attempted suicide, distraught at the
discovery he had malignant cancer. He was
airlifted to Israel in critical
condition, officials said.
Security
guards heard the shot and found grossman
in his room at the Addis Ababa Hilton,
bleeding from his head with his gun lying
nearby.
An Israeli
security source said the shooting, which
left Grossman in critical condition,
"appeared to have a personal
background".
A
spokesman for Israel’s Foreign
Ministry said a team was being sent to
Ethiopia "to check the circumstances
of the event".
Both
Ethiopia and Israel earlier had said
there was no evidence of terrorism.
A doctor
involved in the Ambassador’s
treatment at Addis Ababa’s Hayat
hospital said Grossman had been in
intensive care, in a room guarded by
security officers.
"I am
afraid it is very critical and could be a
very serious one," said the doctor,
who declined to give his name.
Grossman,
48, had served in the post since 2002 and
was due to leave shortly to become
Israel’s Ambassador in South Africa.
Tens of
thousands of Ethiopian Jews have
immigrated to Israel from the horn of
Africa nation since the 1980s. (AGENCIES)
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Canada
radio station rapped for anti-Sikh insults
OTTAWA,
Mar 31:
A Canadian radio station was formally
reprimanded after one of its presenters insulted
immigrants to Canada and then said the Sikhs of
northern India were "a gang of Bozos".
The Canadian
Broadcast Standards Council said the item on
Montreal’s Ckac-FM was "abusive and
unduly discriminatory" and ordered the
station to make a public apology.
Immigration is a
sensitive issue in Canada, one of the few western
countries that still accepts large numbers of
immigrants each year.
In a show
broadcast in December 2003, Ckac-FM presenter
Pierre Mailloux told listeners that immigrants
who came to Canada should abandon their habits
and traditions.
"You cultural
communities come from a Wacko country. You live a
Wacko culture. Don’t bring it with you.
That’s the message to convey," he said.
Later in the show
he remarked: "I flee northern India because
the Sikhs are a gang, a gang of Bozos, and then I
bring all that with me. No, no, you really
don’t get it. If you flee your country
because it makes no sense, then don’t bring
those senseless things with you."
The Standards
Council said that while freedom of expression
laws entitled mailloux to express his opposition
to wide-scale immigration, he had gone too far
with his anti-Sikh comments.
"(We)
consider that the host is entitled to espouse his
Chauvinistic intolerance until such time as his
disrespect leaks into individual races and
nationalities, as it did when he referred to the
sikhs as ‘a gang of Bozos’," it
said.
The radio station
said Mailloux had shown "Manifest ignorance
of the immigration policies and procedures in
Canada" and said it had told him to
"show more compassion and reserve concerning
immigrants". (AGENCIES)
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Cambodian
arms dump blast kills 5
PHNOM
PENH, Mar 31: An explosion at an arms
warehouse in northwestern Cambodia early today
killed at least five villagers as they slept and
blocked the main road to the Thai border, police
said.
They said more
than 10 people were wounded, several seriously,
as the explosion sent shrapnel and rockets flying
through the air, some of them landing up to 4 km
away.
"It landed on
villagers’ homes as they were in bed and
killed them," so Sam an, deputy police Chief
of Battambang province where the incident
occurred, told by telephone.
The fire was still
blazing as the sun rose and there were further
explosions later in which one soldier was
wounded, police said. The warehouse was near
Andong Chenh commune 300 km from Phnom Penh.
Villagers were
told to flee the area as houses went up in flames
and firefighters tried to douse the fires. Senior
Battambang policeman Sarn Hak said traffic had to
use alternative roads to the Thai border as the
explosions threatened the main highway.
Officials said the
cause of the explosion was not immediately known
and police were investigating. (AGENCIES)
Early to
bed, early to rise -it’s all in the genes
LONDON,
Mar 31:
A mutant gene rather than anti social
tendencies may be the cause of people going to
sleep and waking up unsociably early, scientists
have said.
They made their
discovery after studying three generations of a
family in which five members suffered from the
so-called earlybird ailment officially known as
familial advanced sleep phase syndrome.
"These
results show that the gene is a Central component
of the Mammalian circadian clock," the
researchers from the universities of California,
Vermont, Utah and the Howard Hughes Medical
Institute wrote in the science journal nature.
They identified
the mutant gene as Ckidelta.
People with
earlybird syndrome sleep for the same length of
time as non-sufferers but typically are wide
awake and raring to go long before everyone else
is up and about.
For many, it is a
bonus rather than a millstone as they can use the
time to get things done without daylight
distractions.
But for others,
living a life out of synch with their neighbours
is a heavy anti-social burden.
"Some of them
would never come to a doctor because they
aren’t troubled by it," Howard Hughes
researcher Louis Ptacek said. "Often they
have adjusted and accommodated their jobs to
match their ability."
"But others
are bothered by being out of phase with the rest
of the world," he added.
The researchers
said transferring the mutant gene to mice
replicated the human experience but, oddly,
inserting it into fruit flies made them sleep
longer.
They said further
research into the role of the gene in regulating
the human body clock could have major
implications for the development of novel
compounds for the treatment of sleep disorders.
(AGENCIES)
Vietnam
jails two Hill tribesmen for stirring unrest
HANOI,
Mar 31:
A court in Vietnam’s restive central
highlands has jailed two hill tribesmen for
stirring unrest in the region, a state-run
newspaper reported today.
The Lao Dong
newspaper said in a front page report Y PI, 47,
was jailed for 5 years and Y Krat, 45, for 3
years after the people’s court of Dak Nong
province found them guilty yesterday of
"sabotaging the great unity policy".
The court was told
the two men from the ede ethnic minority group,
in conjunction with anti-Government forces in
exile, incited people to join protests in the
Central highlands between 2002 and May 2004.
The trial was the
latest in a region where many of the hill tribes
are Christian, leading to accusations from human
rights groups of religious discrimination, a
charge the communist Government denies.
In November, the
same court in Dak Nong jailed 17 people for up to
10 years for sabotaging national security and
helping people flee Vietnam into Combodia.
The Hill tribes,
known commonly as Montagnards, took to the
streets in April 2004 in protest against what
human rights groups described as repression of
their religious and land rights.
The Government
quelled the demonstrations but denied accusations
by right groups it had used force and said the
hundreds who fled to neighbouring Cambodia had
been incited to leave.
Today, the defence
ministry-run Quan Doi Nhan Dan (people’s
army) newspaper accused the US State Department
of fabricating evidence in a human rights report
of suppression in the Central highlands.
"The truth is
that the situation in the Central highlands is
bright," the paper said in an editorial.
(AGENCIES)
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Rare gay
male sex disease enters Britain: Report
LONDON,
Mar 31:
A rare disease found in gay men in the
Netherlands two years ago and since reported in
France, Sweden, Belgium, Germany and the United
States has now found its way into Britain,
according to a report today.
The disease,
Lymphograunuloma Venereum, attacks the rectum and
can if not treated early affect part of the
immune system, the journal sexually transmitted
infections said.
It said 34 cases
had been reported in Britain — all in gay
men of whom more than half were HIV positive and
a handful also were infected with the sexually
transmitted hepatitis C.
It is a a genital
bacterial infection caused by a particularly
aggressive strain of Chlamydia Trachomatis, the
journal said.
It was considered
relatively rare until 2003 when some 100 cases
were reported in gay men in Rotterdam.
Since then it has
been found in Antwerp, Hamburg, Paris, Sweden and
several US cities including New York, San
Francisco and Atlanta.
If treated early
it can be dealt with using antibiotics. But if
overlooked, surgery is often necessary, the
journal said. (AGENCIES)
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