Reps
push bills through US House before
Democrats take over
WASHINGTON, Dec 9: Rejected by voters
and limping off stage, the Republican-led
House of Representatives passed a series
of last-minute bills on issues like tax
breaks and health insurance.
But they
dumped an unfinished budget on the
Democrats about to take power, and the
Senate planned a late-night vote to avoid
a government shutdown.
The
failure to pass budget bills for domestic
agencies on yesterday amounted to "a
blatant admission of abject failure by
the most useless Congress in modern
times," said Democratic Congressman
David Obey.
Working
into the night, the House also passed a
package of trade bills and debated a
measure to keep the government running
into next February.
Under a
complicated procedural pirouette, the tax
and trade legislation, along with a plan
to open 8.3 million acres in the Gulf of
Mexico to oil and gas drilling, was to be
bundled together and sent to the Senate,
where a handful of Republicans threatened
delay.
A weekend
Senate session loomed as Republican
budget hawks bridled at the measure's
cost and textile state senators objected
to trade provisions benefiting Haiti. The
House passed the trade bill by a 212-184
vote.
The 367-45
House vote on the tax bill reflected
widespread bipartisan support for
extending some expired tax breaks. Also
driving the massive bill forward was an
effort to prevent a five per cent cut in
payments to doctors under the Medicare
insurance program for the elderly.
Lawmakers
faced a midnight deadline to send
President George W Bush a bill to keep
domestic federal agencies from shutting
down. (AGENCIES)
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E-Plates
to be introduced to reduced car thefts
KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 9: In a bid to reduce
the increasing number of car thefts
across the country, Malaysian authorities
have decided to introduce high-tech car
registration plates with embedded
microchip sealed into the body of the
vehicles, a news report said here today.
The
microchips will hold details of the
driver, vehicle and model and make it
easy for the Road Transport authorities
to identify stolen vehicles by using
hand-held scanners, The New Straits Times
said.
At least
30 cars are stolen everyday across the
country, most of them luxury vehicles, it
said.
Only
authorised mechanics will be allowed to
fit the "e-plate" into cars, it
said.
"Our
main aim in introducing this system is to
reduce car thefts nationwide. These
e-plates are brought into use as to
change the registration plate is the
first thing the theives do," the
daily quoted a Road Transport Department
official as saying.
The
official said countries like Japan had
reduced car theft by using this system.
The
materials used in making the plates would
be aluminium based with an amalgam of
other substances, which makes it
difficult to break. (PTI)
India
for fighting ‘real causes’ in
Afghanistan
UNITED NATIONS, Dec
9: Expressing concern over the
prevailing insecurity in Afghanistan,
India has asked the international
community to concertedly fight its
"real causes" including revival
of Taliban, Al-Qaeda and other extremist
groups in the country as well as
existence of cross border safe havens for
them.
During a
debate on the situation in Afghanistan in
the 15-member Security Council, several
speakers, including Pakistani Ambassador
Munir Akram, blamed lack of effective
governance, widespread corruption, the
inefficiency of police service, growing
narcotics trade and continued war lordism
for insecure condition in parts of the
country.
But Indian
Ambassador Nirupam Sen cautioned against
focussing on only these areas, asserting
that these are not real causes of
insecurity.
"These
are factors which thrive on insecurity
and serve to exacerbate it," he said
and asked the international community to
focus on the roots of insecurity in the
process of rebuilding and strengthening
the Afghan state.
"The
snakes are still swirling because of
cross border dimension," he said
without naming Pakistan. Attempts at
stability and security would be
unavailing unless this aspect is
addressed, he emphasised.
It is
important, Sen told the Council, to
confront Taliban and not strike deals
with them. "We believe that the cost
of tolerating the spiralling violence is
infinitely higher than any cost we might
bear in quelling it through firm law
enforcement action."
The
consequences of collective inaction, Sen
added, might well be borne by the
international community in general but
will certainly be borne by the States in
the region.
He
rejected suggestions that efforts to
negotiate peace in the more troubled
Afghan provinces are succeeding and gave
statistics to support his argument.
The
statistics, he said, show that in recent
months, security related incidents have
escalated by as much as 70 per cent and
50 per cent in Paktika and Khost
provinces.
"Therefore,
it not clear that efforts to negotiate
peace are succeeding. Indeed, terrorist
violence spreading elsewhere may suggest
the opposite."
Sen said
growing incidence of suicide bombings
shows the increasing spread of an
ideology and tactics typical of Al-Qaeda
which are not part of the Afghan culture
or religious traditions.
"It
is in this context that India emphasises
the need to simultaneously implement firm
and effective law enforcement measures,
security sector reform programmes,
capacity building measures and regional
cooperation in all fields," he
added.
He asked
the international community to retain
abiding responsibility to assist
Afghanistan in consolidating democratic
governance, peace and stability and
long-term employment-led development
while in the interim delivering
humanitarian assistance.
The growth
of representative political parties and
the broad-basing of culture of democratic
political activism, he said, are
developments that should fostered since
these also help in checking terrorism.
(PTI)
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