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| Wednesday,
April 11, 2001, Chandigarh, India   
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NTV
defections hit Turner bid
Pak bans
movies on cable UN
chief’s offer to resolve standoff |
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Washington, April 10 The USA has said that Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat had agreed “in principle” to continue security talks despite the postponement of one such session. All set
for truce in Lanka
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NTV defections hit Turner bid Moscow, April 10 In an early morning radio call-in, Schroeder tactfully sidestepped direct criticism of his host, President Vladimir Putin, over last week’s contested takeover of Russia’s only independent national television network NTV. “My understanding of a free press is that you have to separate property on one side and an understanding of journalism on the other,” Schroeder said through a translator on Echo Moskvy, a sister radio to NTV. “I have always understood that journalism is the freedom, the democratic freedom, of a country and in that I agree with the President,” he added. Schroeder, who discussed NTV with Putin on Monday, then said Russia needed media to “inform the people and monitor the authorities”. But his comments fell short of the direct pressure on Putin NTV staff had hoped for. Putin, who on Monday broke a week-long silence on the case, pledged himself to free speech but said he could not intervene in a purely commercial dispute that a court should resolve. “As far as expressing one’s opinion is concerned, freedom of the press etc, then it must be guaranteed,” Putin said in a television interview broadcast late last evening. “But it can only be guaranteed under one condition: the creation of acceptable economic conditions for a free press.” State-dominated gas giant Gazprom ousted NTV founder and key aides in a boardroom coup branded illegal by the network’s staff. Thousands have protested against the takeover in the biggest street protests of Putin’s presidency. Moscow’s Arbitration Court in the meantime set a May 10 date to hear a legal challenge to the contested shareholder meeting, NTV spokesman Dmitry Ostalsky said. A dispute over management changes ordered by Gazprom will be debated a week later. NTV’s journalists and liberals have painted the station’s fate as a litmus test of freedom of speech under Putin, a former KGB spy and domestic intelligence service chief. After presenting a united front at the start of the protest, defections from the channel have begun to increase. The Washington Post said that could undermine Turner’s bid to buy into the troubled channel and maintain its independence. “If this thing blows up in the next two weeks, then there really isn’t anything to buy,” the paper quoted Turner spokesman Brian Faw as saying. Top news presenter Tatyana Mitkova and commentator Leonid Parfyonov, who resigned at the weekend, were followed on Monday by 22 other journalists, said NTV’s Internet web site. Putin cast NTV’s bosses in a bad light, noting that Russian prosecutors wanted to extradite NTV founder Vladimir Gusinsky from Spain on fraud allegations. Gusinsky says the charges are part of a political campaign to seize his media outlets. NTV’s Ostalsky accused Putin of telling lies “on a scale worthy of Goebbels” about the debts of Gusinsky’s media empire, a reference to the Nazi propaganda chief Josef Goebbels.
Reuters |
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Pak bans movies on cable Lahore, April 10 Thousands of small-time cable operators, who have set up their business across the country, regularly show new Pakistani, Indian and English movies on their cable channels in violation of the copyright laws. Their illegal operation destroyed the business of thousands of music centres and video rentals, which had been complaining against them for years, but no action was taken. Finally the government has banned the exhibition of any video/CD films on any cable network. The Director-General of the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority, Ch Muhammad Din, has directed all cable operators to operate 20 channels only, including 4 decoder channels, after paying the prescribed fees. The DG said: “All channels must be free of any obscenity and vulgarity.” He also said it was mandatory for the cable operators to show all Pakistani channels as well as the Koran channel. Violation of the rule would be penalised and their licences cancelled. A government spokesman said: “Due to this ban not only the film makers and video shops owners will be relieved, but their business will also be revived.” It is pertinent to note that there was tremendous public pressure on PTA against the unlicensed cable networks operating in different localities of Lahore which were spreading obscenity, Indian culture and violence through pirated videos/CDs. Besides, none of the cable operators showed the number of channels he promised to his subscribers at the time of selling a connection for Rs 1500 to Rs 3000 in advance and for a monthly fee from Rs 100 to Rs 1000. The News learnt that many cable operators promised 60 to 65 TV channels, home security system through cable network and Internet connection to the customers, but never fulfilled their promise. When approached for his comments on obscene scenes being shown on cables, a PTA official, requesting anonymity, admitted that the PTA could not determine what was objectionable, obscene or violent. He, however, said violation of copyrights was common as licences to cable operators were being issued without checking out their professional background.
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UN chief’s offer to resolve standoff United Nations, April 10 “I hope direct discussions would lead to results,” Mr Annan told reporters adding that his good offices were available, if needed, to help deal with the issue. Asked how could the two decide on the issue with China insisting on an apology, Mr Annan said “they have so many ways to do so and I think they will find a way of doing that.” On the issue of West Asia, Mr Annan called on both Israel and Palestine to resume peace talks. “I know that there are those who believe that as long as the violence is going on, one should not talk. I personally disagree with that. I think that is one more reason to talk and it underscores the urgency of bringing the parties together,” Mr Annan added. The standoff between the USA and China continues following the landing of an American spy plane on its soil after it was damaged in a collision with a Chinese fighter plane whose pilot is missing and is presumed dead. BUENOS AIRES: China has declared itself “extremely unsatisfied” by US statements on the nine-day standoff over a US spy plane and reiterated its demand for a US apology for the incident. “We are extremely unsatisfied by statements made thus far by the USA,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhu Bangzao said at a news conference here yesterday. “The USA should apologise,” he added. “If not, it is going to make it more difficult to find a solution to this very serious incident, in which China is the victim.”
PTI, AFP |
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Estrada suffers twin legal blow Manila, April 10 It was the latest in a succession of legal setbacks for the disgraced former movie actor in his attempt to avoid arrest and prosecution on an array of charges ranging from corruption to economic plunder, the last a capital offence. Officials of the Sandiganbayan anti-graft court, which will try Estrada, said they were studying prosecution evidence to see if it justified ordering his arrest. “If there is a basis... we issue the arrest warrant on Monday,’’ Sandiganbayan Chief Judge Francis Garchitorena said. But Estrada’s lawyers said they were not giving up their fight and would file petitions with the court questioning the filing of the plunder case. Estrada failed to win a single vote from the Supreme Court’s 15 justices in the twin cases he filed with the country’s highest tribunal. The court voted to dismiss the former President’s petition asking it to halt his trial on the grounds that he had not been given an opportunity to answer the charges against him. Ombudsman Aniano Desierto, who filed the cases last week, said state prosecutors had strong evidence that Estrada illegally amassed more than 4 billion pesos ($8 million) in his 31 months in office. Estrada has denied all charges against him and said he fears he might not get a fair trial.
Reuters |
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Rare Siamese twins separated Singapore, April 10 “We are cautiously optimistic,” Dr Keith Goh, the paediatric neurosurgeon heading the team, told a news conference at the Singapore General Hospital. “As of this point there were no adverse events that will affect their brains from the surgery ... (but) it’s too early to say. Something could happen unrelated to the surgery,” he said.
Doctors said the next few days will be critical for 11-month-old Ganga and Jamuna Shrestha after the marathon operation that was deemed essential for them to survive and have a chance at normal lives. Conjoined twins fused at the head are rare, occurring only once in about two million live births. Successful surgery to separate them is even rarer. The girls have been sedated since Friday morning and will remain so for the next few days to allow their vital signs to stabilise, Dr Goh said. Doctors could tell how well the girls’ brains were working only after they regained consciousness, he added. The girls were likely to remain in Singapore for at least another three months until their skin wounds had healed and will need more operations in the future as they grow, Dr Goh said. The surgical team used a waterproof sheet similar to the those used in ski jackets to “shrink-wrap” the girl’s brains and implanted more man-made materials to act as the skull. Doctors had to graft extra skin from Ganga’s thighs and Jamuna’s back to cover their heads. The twins, along with their impoverished grandfather and parents, have been in Singapore since October. Doctors have volunteered their services and hospital costs are being covered by a flood of public donations. Nepal-born twins Ganga and Jamuna Shrestha were joined at the head and their brains had become enmeshed where they share the same cavity. The operation, which began at 4 pm (local time) on Friday was expected to take up to 36 hours, but the meticulous separation and reconnection of blood vessels took considerably longer than anticipated. “They finished the operation early this morning,” the hospital spokeswoman said today. “The plastic surgeons are now with the babies.” A team of neurosurgeons used a computer module showing a three-dimensional image of the girls’ brains and blood vessels to help navigate the best route between the inter-locked brains during the complex surgery.
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Boy killed, 50 hurt in B’desh strike Dhaka, April 10 Delwar Hossain (14), a tea stall boy who was injured yesterday in a bomb explosion at Munshiganj, a district town near the capital, died last night at a Dhaka hospital. Hartal supporters had thrown a crude bomb on him immediately after he had opened the door of the tea stall at dawn. Five persons of an anti-hartal procession of the labour wing of the ruling party were injured in a petrol-bomb explosion this morning in the Matijheel Commercial area. The police suspects that pro-hartal elements threw the petrol bomb on the procession. A bus was set ablaze by the opposition activists. In retaliation, the residence of Sarwar, an opposition legislator, in Barishal district town was set on fire. Five persons were injured and the police arrested 10 persons. Railway tracks on the Chittagong-Nazirhat route in the southeastern part were removed by the opposition activists, resulting in the disruption of rail service for more than five hours. However, the authority arranged transportation of goods by trucks from Chittagong. Loading and unloading of cargo at the Chittagong port remained suspended during the hartal, despite efforts to keep it going. Cars, buses, trucks in the capital and Chittagong remained off the road. A large number of rickshaws and autorickshaws plied in the city. The opposition to the hartal programme is mounting gradually. The Bangladesh Garments Manufacturers and Exporters Association in a statement urged the opposition to desist from hartal programmes which hampers production and timely export of readymade garments. |
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11 of family hacked to death in Pak Karachi, April 10 Rescue workers from the Edhi charitable foundation said police in Vehari district, 300 km north of the state capital Lahore, had arrested two relatives of the victims. They added the murders, in which the victims appeared to have been first drugged with sleeping pills before being attacked with large butchers’ knives, appeared to be related to an old family feud and a dispute over property. A doctor at Vehari hospital said the victims were unconscious before being killed. “We have not yet completed the postmortem, but initial findings showed that they were killed when they were unconscious,” he
said. Reuters |
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Arafat, Sharon agree to carry on talks Washington, April 10 State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said yesterday that both Mr Sharon and Mr Arafat had made their positions clear to Secretary of State Colin Powell in weekend phone calls. TEL AVIV: European Union Foreign Ministers has warned Israel to stop building Jewish settlements on Palestinian land, saying that violence in the region would not end without a halt to new settlement. “We want no new settlements and a restart of negotiations and peace talks (between Israel and the Palestinians),’’ Swedish Foreign Minister Anna Lindh said on Monday. Sweden currently holds the rotating, six-month Presidency of the 15-nation EU. AFP, DPA |
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All set for truce in Lanka Colombo, April 10 “There will be a cessation of all hostile military operations from midnight on April 13 to midnight of April 16,” said the official. The move comes several days after the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam demanded the government to lift a ban on the group and stop its attacks on the rebels before any peace talks take place. The official said a statement with further details would be released later by the government, which in the past has limited its military attacks on important religious and cultural holidays. The latest statements come as the two sides have been inching closer to the negotiating table, with Foreign Minister Lakshman Kadirgamar saying last week a date for the start of the Norwegian-brokered talks would be announced by the end of the month.
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