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May 22, 2001, Chandigarh, India   
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Pakistan refuses entry to Taliban Minister Beijing, May 21 The Chinese police charged four intellectuals with subversion in, a “strike hard” campaign against dissent that may be linked to the recent detention and arrests of US-based academics, a Hong Kong-based rights group said today. India not sincere,
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Narayan’s home away from home The Son’s Room wins Cannes top award
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Gunmen kill six Christians ‘Pearl Harbor’ launch on shore
Pact on keeping women out of poll
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Pakistan refuses entry to Taliban Minister Islamabad, May 21 Maulvi Mohammed Qasim, Deputy Minister for Construction, was stopped at Torkham, the main crossing between the two countries, and turned back, immigration officials said. Qasim was coming to Pakistan on a private visit. No immediate comment was available from the Taliban, which rules more than 95 per cent of Afghanistan, including the capital Kabul. This is the second time that Pakistan, considered a close ally of the Taliban, has refused entry to their high officials. In April, Pakistan stopped four Taliban ministers from visiting the country to attend a conference organised by a radical Islamic party in its North Western Province. Refusing entry to the Taliban Ministers is in line with UN sanctions that include a ban on the supply of weapons to the Taliban and restrictions on foreign travel by their officials, Pakistani officials say. The UN imposed sanctions on the Taliban for its support of Saudi dissident Osama bin Laden, whom Washington accuses of running a global terrorist network. Washington wants Bin Laden to stand trial in the United States or a third country for his alleged involvement in the bombing of its two embassies in East Africa in 1998. But the Taliban refuses to hand over Bin Laden, saying that he is a fellow Muslim and a guest. Pakistan opposes sanctions on the Taliban but says it will abide by the UN decision. Meanwhile, Afghanistan's
Taliban rulers closed the political offices of the United Nations in four cities in protest against the world body’s sanctions against the hardline militia, a UN official said on Monday. The offices of the United Nations Special Mission to Afghanistan in Kandahar, Herat, Mazar-i-Sharif and Jalalabad have been closed in line with a May 20 deadline given by the Taliban early this year, a UN official said here on condition of anonymity. The offices were a key element of the United Nations’ effort to broker a peace accord in the war-torn nation. But it was unclear if their closure would have much of an impact on peace efforts be cause the Taliban have refused to recognise the United Nations as an arbiter. Another UN official, who also asked not to be identified, said all of the Special Mission’s international staff in the four Afghan cities had left the country in recent days. The officials said the UN mission’s office in the Afghan capital of Kabul had been allowed to remain open and that the closure of the other offices would not affect the humanitarian work carried out by the world body. The Taliban, who rule 95 per cent of Afghanistan, closed the offices in retaliation for UN sanctions, punishing them for giving shelter to Saudi billionaire Osama Bin Laden, whom Washington accuses of running a global terrorist network. Washington wants bin Laden to stand trial in the USA or a third country for his alleged involvement in the bombing of two of its embassies in East Africa in 1998. The Taliban refuse to hand him over, saying that Washington had no evidence of his involvement.
ANI, AP |
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China arrests four scholars Beijing, May 21 The Beijing-based scholars were arrested by the state security police on March 13 for organising the “New Youth Society” and charged with the crime of subversion on April 20, the Information Centre for Human Rights and Democracy said in a faxed report. Their arrests by China’s secret police coincides with the detention and arrests of five Chinese-born, US-based scholars since the beginning of the year. Two of the scholars, Li Shaomin and Gao Zhan, have been charged with spying. The confirmation of the arrests of the four Chinese intellectuals was not immediately available. The four — Xu Wei, Yang Zili, Qin Haike and Zhang Honghai — are all recent graduates of Beijing universities and could be facing prison sentences of more than 10 years, the centre said. The arrests come ahead of a key Communist Party congress next year in which wholesale changes in China’s leadership are expected to take place. They also come as China is trying to fend off critics of its human rights record in the run-up to a vote in July by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) for the right to host the 2008 Olympic Games. Beijing, which is vying against Paris, Toronto, Osaka and Istanbul.
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India not sincere, says Musharraf Beijing, May 21 “The main hurdles that have so far eluded a solution to the Kashmir dispute are India’s insincerity and intransigence to hold meaningful talks with Pakistan,” General Musharraf told ‘China Daily’ in an interview published today on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the establishment of Sino-Pakistani diplomatic relations. “I sincerely hope that India will agree in the foreseeable future to resume the stalled dialogue in order to resolve the long outstanding Kashmir dispute,” he said. He said future talks “will surely have to focus on finding a just and peaceful resolution of the Kashmir dispute according to the wishes of the Kashmiri people.” “This is the bottomline for Pakistan in negotiations since it has to be understood that Kashmir is the core dispute,” he said adding that any future talks could not be meaningful unless they address the Kashmir issue which was the “root cause” of tension in the region. “I think the Indian Prime Minister, the Indian public and media also realise that talks must start to reduce the tension between Pakistan and India.” Asked about India’s nuclear capability, hike in defence expenditure and arms purchases, General Musharraf said Islamabad decided to go nuclear in response to “successive escalatory steps” taken by New Delhi. He said the hike in defence budget by India and its move to acquire several types of weapons systems would strain security climate in the region.
PTI |
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Narayan’s home away from home New York, May 21 Stanley Bard opened up a glass-fronted bookcase and picked through several rare first editions before he found the volume he was looking for. Then with a courtly flourish, Bard held up a well-thumbed copy of Narayan’s “The Mahabharata: A Shortened Modern Prose Version of the Indian Epic” (Viking Press, New York). On the flyleaf were these words, inscribed in the writer’s meticulous hand, “For Stanley, greetings from R.K. Narayan, in memory of the lovely years at Chelsea. 10th June ‘91.” Bard recalled another volume in which the author’s inscription said the Chelsea had been Narayan’s “home away from home.” For, the author had stayed at the Chelsea off and on for three decades until 1992, the year of his last visit to the USA. A list of the writers, musicians and visual artistes who have become part of Chelsea Hotel’s long and dramatic history reads like a Who’s Who of 20th century avant-garde art. And while R.K. Narayan’s may not be a name that immediately springs to mind when discussing the avant-garde, the novelist is the only Indian writer listed on the hotel’s website, www.hotelchelsea.com. Among the personalities who lived at the 12-storey brownstone on West 23rd street are R.K. Narayan, poets Dylan Thomas, Gregory Corso and Hart Crane; novelists William Burroughs and Brion Gysin; musicians Leonard Cohen, Bob Dylan, Janis Joplin, Sid Vicious, Patti Smith, Jimi Hendrix and Edith Piaf; painters Jim Dine and Willem de Kooning; cartoonist Robert Crumb; photographer Robert Mapplethorpe; filmmaker Dennis Hopper and actress Edie Sedgwick. Narayan is clearly a favourite among those Bard has met. “I liked him being here,” he told a visitor. “He was always a gentleman.” Bard, whose family had run the hotel since 1940, said Narayan stayed at the hotel whenever book tours brought him to New York. “Sometimes he would stay for several months at a stretch, sometimes for a few days, sometimes for one night. But this was his home every time he came to New York.” Narayan had friends among the hotel’s other guests, notably playwright Arthur Miller, but he was closest to Bard. “Mr Narayan was the gentlest of men, a beautiful person who exuded sincerity,” Bard said. “I am very sorry to hear of his death.” The Real Estate Record & Guide of January 20, 1883, describes the Hotel Chelsea as “a building, with brownstone trimmings, flat for 40 families, 175 x 86, mansard, brick, patent roof, cost $ 300,000...” The hotel, built in 1884, was the tallest building in New York until 1902. It was the city’s first co-operative apartment complex. It had wrought iron balconies, apartments of one to seven rooms (built to the purchaser’s specifications), high ceilings, fire-and sound-proof walls, wood-burning fireplaces, private penthouses, and a wrought-iron staircase constructed with a balustrade and mahogany banister extending from the lobby to the 12th floor. The cooperative eventually went bankrupt and in 1905, it was sold and reorganised as a hotel. Among the legends that residents speak of are ghosts that haunt the building. Punk-rocker Sid Vicious allegedly killed his girlfriend, Nancy Spungen, in the hotel. American poet James Schuyler lived there at the time of his death. As did Welshman Dylan Thomas. Their ghosts are said to stalk the rooftop gardens of the Chelsea late at night. One long-term resident, wearing a blonde wig and black leathers, told a visitor he had seen the Chelsea Hotel’s ghost guests. “This place is like the Hotel California,” he said. “You can check out any time you like but you can never leave.”
IANS |
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The Son’s Room wins Cannes top award Cannes, May 21 After accepting the Palme d’Or yesterday, Moretti emotionally thanked everyone involved with the film and threw his arms in the air in elation. “The Son’s Room” features a character named Giovanni living a near-perfect life with his wife and two children. Then his teenage son is killed in a freak diving accident. Moretti, who plays the lead, intelligently examines how people cope with the worst that can happen to a family. The grand prize, the festival’s second-highest honour, went to “The Piano Teacher,” Austrian director Michael Haneke’s dark tale of a sexually repressed music instructor seduced by a student. “The Piano Teacher” also took both acting awards, with Isabelle Huppert, winning best actress and Benoit Magimel winning best actor. Best-director honours were split between Joel Coen for his film, Noir Thri. The Golden Camera award for first-time directors went to Canada’s Zaarias Kunuk for “Atanarjuat the Fast Runner,” the story of two Eskimo brothers who challenge the rule of an evil shaman. The screenplay award went to Bosnia’s Danis Tanovic for the irreverent war satire “No Man’s Land,” which he also directed. The jury awarded a prize for technical achievements to Tu Duu-Chih, sound designer for two films in competition. “Millennium Mambo” and “What Time is it There?” Director and actress Liv Ullmann headed the 10-member Cannes jury, which included directors Terry Gilliam and Edward Yang and actresses Julia Ormond and Charlotte Gainsbourg. The top prize in a separate competition called “Un-certain Regard” went to first-time French director Yves Caumon for “Boyhood Loves.” The competition included films that did not make the main awards category, but were deemed worthy of screening at the festival.
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Gunmen kill six Christians Jakarta, May 21 It was unknown whether the gunmen, who also wounded 17 persons in the attack late yesterday, were members of the Indonesian military, which has at times taken sides in the conflict based on soldier’s religious affiliations. “We are still investigating the case,” said Agus Sukota, information officer at the civil emergency office in Ambon, regional centre of the Moluccan Islands. The attacks occurred in the Mardika and Soya Kacil neighbourhoods of Ambon, which lies some 2,100 km northeast of Jakarta.
DPA |
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‘Pearl Harbor’ launch on shore Pearl Harbor, May 21 Hollywood stars, military brass and Second World War veterans will be among the 2,000 guests at the premier on the flight deck of the US $ John C. Stennis at Pearl Harbor. The movie opens in theatres on Friday. The $ 5 million premier party promises to match the extravagance of the $ 140 million films, “starring Ben Affleck, Kate Beckinsale and Josh Hartnett”, with what producer Jerry Bruckheimer said will be “one of the biggest fireworks display ever.” The Stennis is moored a few hundred metres from ground zero of the Dec 7, 1941, Japanese attack that drew the United States into World War II. The ship is opposite the memorial for some 900 crew of the USS Arizona who went down with the battleship in the first 30 minutes of the surprise attack. Also nearby is the USS Missouri battleship, on whose deck Japan signed surrender documents in 1945. The Stennis’ 1.8-hectare flight deck has been transformed into an open-air theatre with stadium seating. The movie directed by Michael Bay tells the story of the attack through the lives of two fighter pilots from Tennessee (Affleck and Hartnett) who fall in love with the same nurse (Beckinsale).
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Four injured in Gaza City Gaza City, May 21 The Israeli raids on the northeastern outskirts of Gaza City were the first to target civilian factories since the Palestinian uprising began eight months ago. A metal factory was completely destroyed and another factory, which produces granite sinks and other kitchen equipment, was damaged, Palestinian sources said. A building used by the Force 17 — which serves as Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat’s bodyguard — was also damaged in the attacks. A Palestinian national security building was also targeted, but that missile landed in an adjacent farmland, the security sources said. Ten houses and a bookshop were also damaged in a residential Gaza suburb. Four persons were wounded in the attacks and taken to a hospital in Gaza City, the security sources said. Hundreds of people thronged the streets of Gaza following the Israeli raid. Security sources said two Israeli helicopters had fired seven rockets during the attack while two surface-to-surface missiles were fired from Nahal Oz on Israel’s eastern border with the Gaza Strip.
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Pact on keeping women out of poll Islamabad, May 21 An agreement reached by the Islamic and secular parties said yesterday that contesting the 33 per cent seats reserved for women would be a violation of “the proud Pukhtoon traditions” and would invite the community’s ire.
DPA |
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