Daily Excelsior... World

Annan names new UN Chief-of-Staff

UNITED NATIONS, Jan 4: UN Secretary General Kofi Annan has begun a major shake-up of the top management by announcing that mark Malloch Brown would take over as his Chief-of-Staff in an effort to enable the world body aggressively combat allegations of scandal and reform the institution.

Brown, a 51-year-old Briton, is a high profile head of the United Nations Development Agency and replaces 70-year old Iqbal Riza of Pakistan. He would take over on January 19.

Riza, who was Annan’s close Adviser, is officially stated to have asked for retirement to which Annan agreed but diplomats note that the reshuffle comes after the Secretary General had reportedly met a group of Americans, none of them republican, who had urged him to undertake a major reshuffle to reburnish world body’s image after some conservative lawmakers had asked for his resignation.

Announcing the appointment yesterday, Annan indicated that more changes are in the offing. "This is the first of changes or shuffle that may happen."

Unlike Riza, Brown is not media shy and told reporters that he would be available to them for comments, something which earlier Chiefs of Staff have not done. But brown is a former journalist and spokesman of the World Bank and hence more comfortable with reporters.

Annan brought home that point when he said brown has experience in both policy and communications.

Apparently Brown was chosen in view of comments that the world body failed to put forward its viewpoint aggressively on allegations of corruption in now defunct "oil-for-food" programme for Iraq and could not effectively explain the reason for exoneration of some top officials of charges, including of sexual harassment, which gave the impression that UN was trying to shield top managers.

Brown would retain his current position as head of the NNDP, the largest UN agency, while the agency deals with Tsunami tragedy and till his replacement is found.

He is going with Annan to Indonesian capital of Jakarta to the meeting of Asian leaders Thursday where an appeal for funds to meet the urgent humanitarian needs of the victims would be launched.

Saying that 2005 offered the United Nations a critical opportunity to push through a new round of reforms, Annan said Brown would play a key role in carrying out a series of measures to enhance the effectiveness of the world body.

"As most of you already know, mark is an immensely capable leader and manager and, in his new role, will assist me and Louise Frichette, my deputy Secretary-General, in developing and implementing major initiatives to improve the performance and management of the United Nations," Annan said.

He stressed the upcoming five-year review of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) will be a key moment for world leaders to reach agreement on how best to revitalise the organisation and ensure it is better equipped to deal with the scale and complexity of 21st century challenges. (PTI)

Celebrity clothier Manuel helps Elvis, Dylan sparkle

NASHVILLE, TENNESSEE, Jan 4: The Mexican-born fashion designer who created glittering jackets for such stars as elvis presley and dolly parton thinks that today’s celebrities don’t measure up.

The man whose rhinestone fetish puts the sparkle in the stage presence of many stars is silver-haired manuel cuevas, 65, who reserves his harshest criticism for men’s lack of fashion sense.

"You get young men who don’t have the culture or the brains to understand culture with their plastic hats and bad-looking jeans. They actually look dirty," said the designer, who is based in Nashville and is known by his first name.

Manuel made his name designing glittering outfits for dozens of movie and music stars including parton, Johnny cash and Bob Dylan, who once wore a manuel suit while performing for the Pope.

He outfitted Elvis Presley with his first spangled outfit and put the skulls and roses on the grateful dead’s duds and the tongue on outfits worn by the rolling stones.

Manuel, who is the subject of a current exhibition at a museum in Nashville, first picked up a sewing needle at the aged of seven. After earning a college degree with a major in psychology he emigrated to Los Angeles from his native coalcoman, along Mexico’s central Pacific coast.

He got his start with famed Hollywood designer "Nudie" Cohn, turning out conventional attire for such actors as Robert Mitchum, Robert Taylor, Robert Redford, Marlon Brando, Steve Mcqueen and Frank Sinatra — the crooner once gave manuel a 1,000 tip.

He also worked with Edith head, a top clothing designer to the hollywood movie studios, helping outfit James Dean for the movie "Giant", Paul Newman for "Cool Hand Luke" and John Travolta for "Urban Cowboy".

"But I wanted to do more than conventional designs," he said. "As a kid, I was always the white bean in the black bean soup."

Thus began his foray into sequins and spangles.

"Everything I create is for a unique personality," he said of his intensely detailed, hand-embroidered outfits that sell for as much as 25,000. One he created for Johnny cash recently sold at auction for 67,000.

Asked how many rhinestones he uses in a typical outfit, manuel said: "About ten thousand in the jacket alone. But it’s worth it."

Cash thanked Manuel for his work with the gift of a guitar inscribed with the words "Keep On Pickin"’.

"That goes back to 1957 or so when his song ‘I Walk The Line’ was a big hit," Manuel said in an interview prior to the opening of the exhibition of his work at the frist art center.

"I designed for (cash’s wife) June Carter cash, too, something I really enjoyed. I like to make women pretty.

"I’ve never understood why they choose white for bridal gowns. They should be like beautiful flowerpots with lots of colour. I have designed many gowns for women that brought out their distinctive beauty."

Couture for men is on a downswing, he said.

"Men don’t dress well. They’re too conservative. They should let the designer do the designing," said Manuel, who moved his business to Nashville in 1989.

The exhibition, "Manuel: star-spangled couture" continues until May 22. Manuel needed a decade to create its centrepiece: 50 dazzling red, white and blue jackets honouring each US state.

Tennessee’s jacket features a Sewn grand Ole Opry backdrop, while Alabama’s is adorned with a US space camp badge and Alaska’s garment has reindeer and native art.

A side gallery features suits worn by Mike Mills of the Rock band Rem, Joe Perry of Aerosmith, Dwight Yoakum (bearing his trademark slashed knees) and Linda Ronstadt. (AGENCIES)

Airstrips key for Tsunami aid, disease fears rise

JAKARTA, Jan 4: Aid workers cleared landing strips in Asia’s flooded Tsunami-hit regions to start flying food, clean water and doctors to hungry and injured survivors, but the global relief operation continued to struggle today.

The threat of diseases like cholera and malaria which could kill tens of thousands was ever increasing with survivors desperate to find water not contaminated by seawater and sewage, said health officials from Sri Lanka to Indonesia.

As exhausted doctors, nurses, aid workers and troops continued their around-the-clock operations, world leaders began arriving in Asia ahead of a Jakarta conference on Thursday where the United Nations will launch a major aid appeal.

A total of 2 billion dollars has already been pledged for Tsunami relief, the biggest humanitarian mission since World War Two, as the death toll continues to climb, with around 150,000 dead and millions left homeless.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) estimates there are more than 500,000 people injured and in need of medical care across six Asian nations.

But on the ground it was the small things which were having the biggest impact, both good and bad.

In the devastated fishing village of Meulaboh in Indonesia’s Aceh province, cut off from the outside world for a week and where an estimated 40,000 may have died, a damaged airstrip was finally cleared using small twin otter aircraft, enabling medical teams to distribute bandages, dressings and painkillers.

But the key airport of Banda Aceh on the tip of Sumatra island —the main gateway for incoming aid flights — was temporarily closed after a plane’s landing gear collapsed. The UN continued to urge donors to transport supplies by road from the city of Medan to Banda Aceh, a trip which can take 16 hours.

"The casualty rates in Meulaboh defy imagination," said Aitor Lacomba, Indonesian director of aid group international rescue committee. "Tens of thousands need immediate assistance there."

The International Red Cross said it was focusing on Meulaboh, with Japanese and Spanish medical teams now operating in the town on Sumatra’s west coast, which saw the force of the Tsunami destroy buildings and wash fishing boats 3 km (two miles) inland.

"There is considerable debris, massive destruction of buildings and roads," said Red Cross water and sanitation engineer Sara Escudero who travelled to the town.

"The huge force of the Tsunami has swept many boats inland. There is a strong smell of putrefaction and whilst body retrieval has commenced it can be assumed that there are still hundreds, possibly thousands of bodies remaining underneath the debris."

The Red Cross will now use Meulaboh as an aid staging post.

"We will use our foothold there to access other areas along the western seaboard and in doing so get humanitarian assistance to many thousands of vulnerable people," said Juergen Weyand, who heads the Red Cross team to Meulaboh.

US amphibious ships arrived off Sumatra on Tuesday and started loading aid via helicopters from medan, before sailing around Sumatra’s northern tip and down the isolated west coast.

Military from the United States, Australia, India, Malaysia, Singapore and Germany were discharging plane load after plane load of aid at Banda Aceh airport and then flying aid sorties to remote areas.

"The situation in Banda Aceh overall is improving. The backlog of relief supplies is starting to clear," said the United Nations office for the coordination of humanitarian affairs, which is leading the relief operation in Indonesia.

The Government of Singapore, close to Sumatra, said the UN had accepted its offer to base a UN regional coordination centre in the city-state and to use its air and naval bases.

In Sri Lanka, the second hardest hit nation with more than 30,000 dead, the first of 1,200 US marines had arrived with helicopters, bulldozers and generators to help speed up relief efforts, hindered by a lack of trucks and warehouse capacity.

With roads, bridges and airstrips washed out, aid groups issued a call for shallow draft boats to try and reach survivors.

"With the coastline decimated, the boats will have to traverse very shallow waters," said aid group international rescue committee in Indonesia. "We will also use motorcycles as a few roads are accessible this way."

Across Asia the fear of disease outbreaks was mounting.

"There is great concern of disease outbreaks among the affected population of five million. It is a race against time," said WHO in its latest report.

WHO said it had already received a handful of reports of malaria and dengue fever and hundreds of reports of diarrhoea and infected wounds. It said millions of water purification tablets had been sent to asia, along with sanitation engineers to re-build water and sanitation infrastructures.

"We have an awful lot of bacteria in the water and the most common way of losing a lot of people, especially children, is due to drinking contaminated water which causes diarrhoea and then dehydration, and in cases like this, death," said the Red Cross.

A Spanish water and sanitation team, consisting of six specialists including a geologist, chemist and biologist, were in Sumatra trying to locate a body of contaminated water to purify.

With the right water source, the Spanish Red Cross team said, they were confident they could produce 300,000 litres of high quality water a day, suitable for a hospital or basic health care unit, or pump out enough clean water each day for 60,000 people.

"The water source could be a lake, a river or a pool, it doesn’t really matter," said Inigo Vila, leader of the Spanish Red Cross team. (AGENCIES)

Peru starts offensive to reclaim siege town

LIMA, PERU, Jan 4: Peruvian police and troops launched an offensive to retake a police station in a southern Andean town and end a three-day siege by ex-soldiers demanding the resignation of unpopular President Alejandro.

"At about (1400 hours local time) the Government began an intervention to retake the police station," an Interior Ministry Spokeswoman told yesterday.

Live television pictures showed the streets of the farm town of Andahuaylas, 900 km southeast of Lima, were deserted in heavy rain.

Police and troops were shown massing on street corners and some gunfire was heard but the scale of the operation was not immediately apparent. Local canal n television reported a police chief headed to the police station in a Government car with white flags on it.

The location of former Army Maj Antauro Humala, who launched his action before dawn on new year’s day to demand Toledo’s resignation, was unclear.

His 200-strong group of former soldiers and police "reservists" — veterans of wars with Ecuador and leftist rebels in the 1990s —seized guns, grenades, explosives and 25 vehicles and killed four police in clashes on Sunday.

Witnesses said the group had control of several blocks.

The Government declared a state of emergency in Andahuaylas and sent 1,000 troops and police to retake the town.

Humala told RPP radio as the Government started the offensive that one of his men had been killed and two civilians and one of his followers injured. The details could not immediately be confirmed.

Humala, who had taken 10 policemen hostage and freed an 11th on Monday, had pledged to hand in his weapons at Midday, but backtracked saying the Government had broken its promise not to mobilize troops.

Despite a Government announcement that an attack was imminent, Humala had earlier walked unarmed to the cathedral in the town’s main square at the head of a crowd of several hundred supportive residents with white flags and balloons.

The crowd bore him on their shoulders.

"We want peace," "Humala Darling" and "Toledo Is A Shit," the crowd cried — highlighting discontent with unemployment and constant corruption scandals 3-1/2 years into his 5-year term. Toledo’s popularity rating is just 9 percent in polls.

Humala — wearing a green woolly hat, black sweater and army fatigues — agreed a three-hour truce with police.

But he told RPP radio: "As soon as we got back to our base there were long range shots" ... We are seeing if there are the conditions to hand over our weapons, but there are snipers everywhere."

Humala, who had previously vowed to fight to the last bullet to get rid of Toledo whom he calls corrupt, said he would only hand weapons to the state human right Ombudsman.

Humala’s headline-grabbing action was the latest instance of frustrated peruvians taking the law into their own hands after a wave of public lynchings last year in remote Andean villages largely abandoned by the state.

"People may disagree with some of Humala’s methods, but the criticism against the frivolous, corrupt political class is there," said Augusto Alvarez, editor of Peru.21 newspaper.

The President, who promised a clean break after a corruption scandal felled President Alberto Fujimori in 2000, has been accused of allowing his sister and supporters to run a purported "forgery factory" to fake signatures to register his party for elections. He denies those and other allegations.

Nevertheless, 19 of his relations and several senior advisers have been implicated in a stream of influence peddling or graft affairs, and he replaced seven ministers in embarrassing scandals in less than a year.

Humala’s uprising was his second such venture after he joined his brother, Ollanta, in a failed rebellion in 2000 against the President Alberto Fujimori’s corrupt Government.

They eventually surrendered after Fujimori was fired and were jailed briefly but later pardoned. (AGENCIES)

Tsunami toll Risesin Maldives, with dozens still missing

MALE, Jan 4: The death toll in the Maldives due to last month’s Tsuami has risen to 82, with 26 people still listed as missing, a Government spoksman said today.

Officials say they’re not declaring the 26 missing people dead because some could be surviving on fishing boats or tiny islands in remote areas of Te Archipelago which strethes over 900 kilometres of the Indian Ocean.

About 14,000 people have been displaced from their homes, and as many as 100,000 people - about a third of the country’s population - are receiving some form of emergency aid.

The Maldives, a chain of more than 1,000 islands, was badly damaged by the Dec 26 Tsunamis that swept the Indian Ocean, striking the coastlines of at least a dozen countries and killing an estimated 150,000.

But officials say the Maldives were saved from worse damage because they are so low-lying that the Tsunami’s huge waves rolled over, rather than crashed down upon, the islands. (AP)

Sweden to send 200,000 doses of cholera vaccine to India

STOCKHOLM, Jan 4: Sweden has said that it was rushing its stockpile of 200,000 doses of vaccine to prevent cholera to India and Sri Lanka amid fears of an outbreak of disease among survivors of the devastating tidal waves.

Sweden alone in the world possesses a stockpile of Dukoral, a drinkable anti-cholera vaccine, sufficient to treat 200,000 people, the aid and development ministry said yesterday.

The vaccines, which were requested by the UN’s World Health Organisation (WHO), should reach the affected areas of India and Sri Lanka within ten days.

The December 26 quake and the Tsunamis it triggered killed 150,000 people and left millions in need.

WHO officials have expressed concern that outbreaks of infectious diseases could kill as many as died directly from the quake and tidal waves.

Cholera is an acute intestinal infection caused by bacteria in contaminated water or food. (AFP)

Koizumi promises to help Tsunami disaster reconstruction

TOKYO, Jan 4: Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, in his first public address of the year today, vowed to do his utmost to help relief and rebuilding efforts for victims of the earthquake-caused Tsunami in southeast Asia.

"As a member of Asia, we would like to do our best to help in the reconstruction," Koizumi told reporters at a nationally televised new year’s press conference.

Japan has been the recipient of aid during its own natural disasters and has an obligation to help the region recover from the "unprecedented damage" caused by the quake and Tsunami, he said.

Over the weekend, Japan pledged up to USD 500 million in grant aid for Tsunami disaster relief, making the country the largest single donor to victims of the catastrophe that struck Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Thailand, India and other nations, likely killing 150,000 people. Japanese were also victims, and 21 Japanese have been confirmed dead.

Koizumi departs tomorrow for a Tsunami aid conference in Jakarta, Indonesia, where Asian leaders will discuss how to prevent a repeat of such a disaster.

Japan has one of the world’s most advanced networks of fiber-optic sensors, which can warn of deadly seismic waves within two minutes of a quake. Koizumi has vowed technical help in building such a warning system in the Indian Ocean region - something experts say could have saved thousands of lives. (AP)