Annan stresses development role at Internet Governance Forum

UNITED NATIONS, Oct 31: UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan has stressed on the importance of using the International computer network to promote global development, as he opened the first ever Internet Governance Forum by encouraging participants to attend the four-day gathering to foster dialogue and cooperation.

More than 1,200 participants comprising government, private sector and civil society representatives, including academic and technical communities, are expected to gather in the Greek capital of Athens until Thursday to hold interactive discussions on issues related to Internet governance, including freedom of expression, access, multilingualism and others.

"With more than 1 billion users worldwide and still growing dramatically, the Internet has outgrown its origins as a network run by and for computer specialists. Indeed it has become too important, for almost every country’s economy and administration, for governments not to take an interest," Mr Annan said in a speech read out by Nitin Desai, Special Adviser for the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS).

"The challenge therefore is to bring two cultures together: the non-governmental Internet community, with its traditions of informal, bottom-up decision-making, and the more formal, structured world of Governments and intergovernmental organizations," he said.

The UN chief added, "The Internet Governance Forum is well placed to contribute to that effort by fostering dialogue, and by giving voice to a wide range of views, including individuals from developing countries and institutions involved in Internet governance."

The forum, which is not a decision-making body, grew out of the 2003 and 2005 WSIS, during which the contentious issue of Internet governance was one of the most widely debated. As a result, heads of state and governments asked Mr Annan to set up the forum.

"I am very encouraged that during the preparatory process, all stakeholders acknowledged that the Internet can play a powerful role in helping developing countries to advance their economic and social well-being, and agreed on the development dimension as overarching priority of the Forum," the UN chief said.

"Today, the Forum enters uncharted waters. Its mandate. Calls on it to serve not as a convenor of Governments, but of all stakeholders. The Forum will thus have to develop procedures and practices for cultivating meaningful cooperation among these disparate partners. While this will be a challenge, the Internet lends itself particularly well to this search for new forms of global collaboration," Annan was quoted as saying in a statement issued yesterday at the United Nations in New York.

There will be eight main sessions and more than 30 workshops, covering the following themes relating to Internet governance: openness freedom of expression, free flow of information, ideas and knowledge; security-creating trust and confidence through collaboration; diversity-promoting multilingualism and local content; access - Internet connectivity, policy and cost. (UNI)

US cop on pedophilia charges commits suicide in Cambodia

PHNOM PENH, Oct 31: An American police officer arrested in Cambodia on charges of sexually abusing two underage girls committed suicide today in a police holding cell, officials said.

Donald Rene Ramirez, a 50-year-old police officer from San Francisco, swiped a gun from his guard and shot himself in the mouth, said Phnom Penh's deputy police chief of the juvenile protection unit, Keo Thea.

"He did commit suicide. He shot himself twice in his mouth," Keo Thea said.

A court prosecutor said Ramirez shot himself in a holding cell at the police station two days after he was charged with abusing two Vietnamese girls aged 12 and 14.

The officer guarding Ramirez had left his gun unattended while he went to the bathroom. While the guard was away, Ramirez used a broomstick handle to drag the gun into his cell.

Ramirez was arrested Thursday at the residence where he was staying in Phnom Penh, after a 14-year-old girl complained to police that he had sexually abused her.

The mother of the girl was also arrested as she was leaving Ramirez's home. She was charged Sunday with human trafficking, prosecutor Ngeth Sarath said.

Police had also charged Ramirez with abusing a second Vietnamese girl aged 12.

Cambodian authorities have cracked down on pedophiles in a bid to clean up the country's image as a haven for child molesters.

Dozens of foreigners have been jailed or deported to face trial in their home countries for child sex crimes since 2003. (AFP)

Syria and Iran are trying to destabilize Lebanon: Bolton

UNITED NATIONS, Oct 31: US Ambassador John Bolton accused Syria and Iran of trying to destabilize Lebanon's democratically elected government by violating a UN arms embargo and said the United States is afraid of further assassinations of the country's leaders.

Bolton stressed that Syria's obligations to respect a UN arms embargo authorised by the Security Council resolution that ended the 34-day Israeli-Hezbollah conflict in August "are particularly important as it is the one country other than Israel that borders Lebanon."

Terje Roed-Larsen, the top UN envoy on Syria-Lebanon issues, said representatives of the Lebanese government "have stated publicly and also in conversations with us that there has been arms coming across the border into Lebanon," as recently as the last few weeks.

The UN has not received any information on quantities and types of weapons or where they came from, however, and it cannot confirm the Lebanese government reports because UN troops have not been asked by the Lebanese army to monitor the border, he said.

Bolton said Roed Larsen told the UN Security Council "that the government was afraid to be specific about these arms coming across the Syrian-Lebanese border because of the fear of retaliation."

"I think it's very courageous for any of the democratic politicians in Lebanon to go about their business under that kind of threat," he said.

Was he afraid of further assassinations? "Absolutely, we're afraid of it," Bolton replied. (AP)

Japan welcomes British climate report

TOKYO, Oct 31: Japan, the home of the Kyoto Protocol, today welcomed a British Government report warning of economic catastrophe if global warming goes unchecked, saying it would build global pressure for change.

"As Japan is an industrialized nation and a major country contributing to combating global warming, we welcome this report," said Go Kobayashi, head of climate change policy division of the Ministry of Environment.

"With this kind of report, we can share information among countries and through sharing we will increase awareness of global warming throughout the world," Kobayashi told AFP.

The report commissioned by the British government estimated that worldwide inaction could cost the equivalent of between five and 20 percent of global gross domestic product every year if nothing is done.

The report's author, former World Bank chief economist Sir Nicholas Stern, said the economic fallout of climate change could be on the scale of the two world wars and the Great Depression of the 1930s.

The Kyoto Protocol, the landmark treaty that mandates cuts in greenhouse gas by developed countries, was negotiated in Japan's former capital Kyoto, after which it is named.

Japan is required under the treaty to cut greenhouse gas emissions six percent by 2012 from 1990 levels, although it is already bracing for trouble meeting its target amid an economic recovery.

The United States and Australia have boycotted the Kyoto Protocol, saying it is unfair because it makes no demands of fast-growing developing countries such as China and India. (AFP)

Oasis, U2, Arctic Monkeys win "Q" music awards

LONDON, Oct 31: Oasis, the Arctic Monkeys and U2 were the big winners at the Q Awards, while music legends The Who and Smokey Robinson were also honoured.

Oasis won the Best Act in the World Today category at Q magazine’s annual show yesterday, while band member Noel Gallagher was named Classic Songwriter.

The awards, renowned for expletive-ridden acceptance speeches and controversial statements, are decided by votes from reader.

The Arctic Monkeys took away Best Album prize for their hot-selling "Whatever People Say I Am That’s What I’m Not" as well as the People’s Choice Award.

U2 was the winner of the Award of Awards category and guitarist The Edge was honoured with the Innovation in Sound award.

Among other winners were Corinne Bailey Rae for Best New Act, Gnarls Barkley’s "Crazy" for Best Track, The Killers’ "When You Were Young" for Best Video, Smokey Robinson for Outstanding Contribution to Music and The Who for the Legend Award.

Band member Pete Townshend said the award did not mean The Who were has-beens.

"It’s good, it’s great, but I’m not gone yet, though. We are not gone," he told Reuters before the awards ceremony. (AGENCIES)

Mittal Steel South Africa says fire to cost 100,000 tons

JOHANNESBURG, Oct 31: Mittal Steel South Africa Ltd., Africa's biggest steelmaker, said it will lose 100,000 tons of production after a fire at its largest plant in Vanderbijlpark, near Johannesburg.

Repairs to a castor unit and other plant will take three weeks, Mittal Steel South Africa's spokesman Tami Didiza said here today.

Mittal Steel South Africa is 52 per cent owned by Mittal Steel, the world's biggest steelmaker. (AGENCIES)

Turkish women slow to benefit from Ankara's reforms

VAN, TURKEY, Oct 31: Half the women in this eastern Turkish city live with domestic violence and more than two thirds had no say in who they married.

Suphet Dusun, forced at 13 by her Kurdish clan to marry an imam who beat her, would not be surprised by the above statement, the result of a poll carried out by the Van Women's Association among 800 women in the city.

''I suffered constant violence, I was constantly beaten, constantly thrown out of the house,'' she said.

Dusun fled to Istanbul, but her husband followed her and, she says, tried to kill her. She left him in Istanbul, came back to Van with four of her seven children, and now works in a restaurant.

In Turkey's rural, conservative southeast, women are married early to protect their virginity and fathers can receive hefty dowries for their daughters. The forced marriage cycle continues as women are powerless -- socially and economically -- to stop their daughters meeting the same fate.

A woman who gave her name only as Kudret said she lost an eye in a beating from a husband she saw only once before her marriage. Her daughter was wed in the same way.

''I couldn't say anything as (my husband) would hit me ... We don't have the right to speak,'' Kudret told Reuters in Van.

The European Union has said Turkey must do more to combat violence against women as part of its bid to join the bloc.

But activists say there has been little progress on forced marriage, domestic violence and other abuses since an EU report last November. Brussels is due to issue another report, expected to denounce the slow pace of reforms, on November 8.

A new penal code came into effect in mid-2005 which gave women more rights, but many say implementation is lagging.

CHANGING MINDS

Zelal Ozgokce, an activist with the Van Women's Association says police often ignore reports of violence against women and regularly do not act when men breach restraining orders.

She described one such case.

''The policeman said 'this is your wife, take her home tonight,''' she said. ''Some of the police are good, but in general, it's very hard.''

As well as enshrining rights in state law, customs and traditions must also be changed.

The new penal code has scrapped reductions to penalties for rapists if they agree to marry their victims. But some families still force their daughters into such marriages, believing this protects the family name and honour.

Marriage deals are still struck by which a boy and a girl from one family marry counterparts in another, an exchange which avoids dowry costs and protects families' property.

If one marriage fails, the other is also dissolved.

''The mentality isn't changing and that's a very important problem,'' Nebahat Akkoc, founder of the women's support centre KAMER in the southeastern city of Diyarbakir, said. (AGENCIES)

Pakistan's foreign direct investment triples in first quarter

ISLAMABAD, Oct 31: Foreign direct investment in Pakistan tripled in the first quarter of the financial year that started July 1, led by companies based in the U.S. And the UK, the central bank said.

Overseas investment in the three months ended Sept. 30, increased to 1.02 billion dollar from 338 million a year ago, according to Karachi-based State Bank of Pakistan.

Companies from the U.S. Invested 227.6 million dollar, up from 85.3 million, and UK-based investment rose to 365.8 million dollar from 41.6 million, the central bank said.

Pakistan needs foreign investment to boost growth in the economy, which the government forecasts will expand 7 percent this financial year, after growth of 6.6 percent last year. Foreign direct investment reached a record 3.5 billion dollar in the year ended June 30, from 1.5 billion previously.

Overseas investors bought a net 120.6 million dollar of Pakistani stocks in the three months ended Sept. 30, down from 144.9 million a year earlier, the central bank said. (AGENCIES)

Families of leprosy victims face bleak future

XIDE LEPROSY VILLAGE, CHINA, Oct 31: Jibuwuniu has lived in a leper colony all her life even though she has never suffered from leprosy.

The 28-year-old, who lives in Xide leprosy village in the mountains in China's southwestern province of Sichuan, is one of tens of thousands of descendents of leprosy sufferers who still live in leper colonies, or villages, across China.

''My parents suffered from leprosy, but they have recovered. Nobody in my family has the disease now,'' said the mother of three as she nursed her baby outside the local school.

There are about 300 people living in Xide village. About 50 of them are the elderly original patients who were forcibly institutionalised in the remote leprosy villages far from their families four decades ago after being diagnosed with the disease.

The infectious skin ailment is now easily cured with a six to 12-month course of antibiotics. None of the original residents or their children and grandchildren suffer from the disease.

Yet the stigma of leprosy has meant that even the perfectly healthy children and grandchildren of the original patients are treated as if they have leprosy.

Ostracised, impoverished and illiterate, few dare to leave.

''I have recovered lepers at home, nobody will hire me. Not only am I uneducated, I don't even speak Mandarin,'' said Jibuwuniu, who has left the village only a few times in her life to buy provisions.

''That's why I want to send my children to school. If not, they won't be able to speak or write Chinese and they won't have a future. I don't want them to be like me,'' she added.

Many of the residents are members of the Yi ethnic minority, an indigenous people living on the high plains of southwestern Sichuan and Yunnan, who speak their own dialect.

Tales abound of how leprosy sufferers have been abandoned by their families even after they recovered from the disease, leaving them no choice but to remain in leprosy villages.

Those who leave are shunned and often barred from buses and trains.

''I left and found work outside but it was very difficult. People are afraid of us because we have no eye lashes and eyebrows,'' said Cao Fuku, 56, a recovered leprosy sufferer, who has several missing fingers and no facial hair. (AGENCIES)

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