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Thursday,
January 9, 2003, Chandigarh, India  
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Bhopal toxic waste reaches Dow’s
office USA won’t invade N. Korea: Bush ‘Al-Qaida
regrouping
with Pak help’ |
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Pak UN envoy may
lose immunity
Sikh leader loses property
battle |
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Bhopal toxic waste reaches Dow’s office London, January 8 The waste had been abandoned in Bhopal and has been poisoning people there since 1984. Greenpeace activists and Rashida Bi, leader of the Bhopal Gas Women’s Union, both constituents of the International Campaign for Justice in Bhopal, unloaded 250 kg of the waste, safely contained in 10 barrels, from the Greenpeace ship, Arctic Sunrise, and delivered it to Dow’s largest European operation Dow Benelux in the Netherlands on Monday. While the activists occupied the building, they hung eight huge photographs depicting Dow’s corporate crime in Bhopal and some of its victims. “We’ll carry on confronting Dow until it cleans up its toxic fallout in Bhopal and stops poisoning us. We’re already struggling to survive sickness from gas exposure without adequate help from the company responsible and are now facing a slow death from exposure to these poisons. How can a corporation get away with this?” asked Rashida Bi, who travelled to the Netherlands to return the waste. The poisonous waste returned is only a fraction of hundreds of tonnes that have been strewn around the pesticide plant in Bhopal since 1984 when Union Carbide, which is now owned by Dow, fled the city after a gas leak at the plant killed 8,000 persons and injured half a million. No one has accepted responsibility for the waste and the chemical company still refuses to clean up the site. For 18 years chemicals have leaked into the ground water in and around the factory site and have been poisoning people who survived the gas leak. Today, the death toll stands at 20,000 and is rising every day. Children born to survivors are suffering health problems and 150,000 persons are in urgent need of medical attention. A news report released by Greenpeace presents further evidence of severe contamination from chemical waste dumped at the plant. Their scientists have identified numerous poisons in the waste, which can damage the nervous system, liver and kidneys and which can be passed from mother to child in the womb. “Corporations like Dow benefit from a global market for development of their businesses but are not held globally accountable for their operations. Until they are, crimes such as this will continue to be committed and people and the environment will pay the price,” Ganesh Nochur, campaigner from Greenpeace India, said.
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USA won’t invade N. Korea: Bush Washington, January 8 “I went to Korea and clearly said that the USA has no intention of invading North Korea. I said that right there in South Korea and in Kim Jong Il’s neighbourhood, I spoke as clearly as I said we won’t invade you...,” Mr Bush told reporters yesterday in response to a query that the North Koreans believed that USA was a threat to them. The USA, he said, expected North Korea to “keep its word” to a 1994 agreement with Washington that it would not develop nuclear weapons. Expressing confidence that the nuclear stand-off would be resolved “peacefully” and “diplomatically”, he said, “We will have dialogue; we have had dialogue with North Korea... but we expect people to honour obligations. And for Kim Jong Il to be a credible member of the world community, he has got to understand that he has got to do what he says he is going to.” North Korea has demanded a no-invasion guarantee from the USA, Russia and China as a condition for giving up its option to build more nuclear bombs. It is not clear whether North Korean leader Kim Jong Il will demand that assurance in writing, in the form of a treaty or any other form. Meanwhile, a senior South Korean official dashed to Washington in a bid to resolve the North Korean dispute as Seoul welcomed the UN nuclear watchdog’s decision.
PTI |
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‘Al-Qaida
regrouping
with Pak help’ Washington, January 8 According to Edmund McWilliams, a retired US Foreign Service officer who served in the US Embassy in Kabul, warlords in the country will become active in Spring, helped by the pro-Taliban parties ruling the Pakistani provinces bordering Afghanistan. Spring will afford greater mobility, enabling them and allied forces under the command of the radical Pashtun leader Gulbuddin Hekmatyar to pose still greater threats, McWilliams, who made a private visit to Afghanistan in 2002 and has had discussions with recent visitors, wrote in the Washington Post.
PTI |
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Pak UN envoy may lose immunity Washington, January 8 New York City prosecutors sought to bring “misdemeanor” assault charges against Mr Akram as a result of a quarrel with his girlfriend Marija Mihic.
Ms Mihic claimed that Mr Akram had smashed her head into a wall and “hurt her arms”, US officials were quoted by the New York Times and the Washington Post today.
UNI |
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Sikh leader loses property battle Vancouver, January 8 The British Columbia Court of Appeal ordered Mr Amar Singh to deposit a large security before he could proceed with his appeal of a ruling that found he improperly influenced Ms Surinder Kaur Sidhu to sign over the land, a Vancouver Sun report said. Last week’s ruling by Mr Justice Kenneth Smith followed a ruling in June by the BC Supreme Court that ordered Mr Amar Singh to return property valued at about $ 1.3 million which he got by convincing Ms Sidhu he could cure her cancer, the report added. The lower court judge ordered Mr Amar Singh to return the land in suburban Surrey to Ms Sidhu’s sole remaining heir, her daughter Tage. In July, Mr Amar Singh appealed. In October, the trial judge handed down supplementary reasons, ordering Mr Amar Singh to pay to the plaintiffs $ 155,000 in assessed costs of the action and $ 172,000 for “adjustments” in respect of the land, according to Vancouver Sun. Mr Amar Singh subsequently asked the court for a stay of proceedings on those trial court orders pending the hearing of his appeal. But the Appeal Court judge rejected the application and also ordered him to deposit a security totalling $ 310,000 for trial and appeal costs because he felt Mr Amar Singh’s appeal had little chance of success, the Vancouver Sun said.
UNI |
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Anoushka nominated for Grammy
New York, January 8 |
3 INDIAN ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS DIE MOTHER THROWS NEWBORN TO DEATH SPOUSES VIE FOR TOP UK LITERARY AWARD |
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Greenpeace has recently returned the poisonous waste collected from the site of the world’s worst industrial disaster in Bhopal, to its rightful owner Dow Chemical.
