 |
|
Peace moves must lead to dialogue, says Musharraf Indian students in Moscow sore at embassy’s apathy Iran used European N-designs: diplomats Bush returns from Iraq trip
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Chandrika compromises on defence portfolio Islamic terrorist cell uncovered in Italy Phoolan features in exhibition on outlaws
China asserts authority over Taiwan
US loses thousands of jobs monthly: study
|
|
Peace moves must lead to dialogue, says Musharraf Islamabad, November 28 “The recent peace overtures must lead to a composite dialogue between the two countries to include all outstanding issues, including the core issue of Jammu and Kashmir”. General Musharraf told the delegation which included former First Lady and Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton, a Foreign Office statement said today. It said General Musharraf discussed with the delegation the ceasefire agreement between India and Pakistan. According to the statement, the US Senators appreciated Pakistan’s “critical role” in the fight against terrorism and the “valuable help” rendered by it for maintaining stability in the region. “Senator Hillary Clinton congratulated the President for the steps taken by Pakistan for the promotion of peace with India,” it said. Later, former US President Bill Clinton spoke to General Musharraf over the phone and they discussed India-Pakistan ties. General Musharraf briefed Mr Clinton and expressed the hope that recent developments would lead to a dialogue and resolution of outstanding issues, the statement said. During the course of the meeting, the President and the US Senators also discussed the situation in Afghanistan. General Musharraf also briefed the US Senators about the steps taken by Pakistan to broaden the base and scope of education in the country and the efforts for human resource development. Meanwhile, Pakistan Foreign Office spokeman Masood Khan has said that the international community has hailed the ceasefire agreement between India and Pakistan.
— PTI |
|
Indian students in Moscow sore at embassy’s apathy Moscow, November 28 Over 70 students gathered at the Indian embassy on Thursday to vent their grievances and to plead for adequate assistance and support for Indian students who were among the 180 persons injured in the fire in a dormitory of People’s Friendship University. The fire, which broke out on Sunday night, killed 37 foreign students, including Laxmi Dave, an 18-year-old girl from Pune, Maharashtra. Hospital officials and leaders of the Indian Students Association identified injured Indian students as Prasan Mandal, Anirudh Desmukh, Vidyarani mLoklakapli, Dineswari, Kishore Kumar Ukride and Sachin Salunk. Another Indian student, Mahesh Murugan, has been listed as missing. Russian officials have so far confirmed Dave was the only Indian killed in the blaze. Other reports had said two Indians had died. The list of victims could not be confirmed independently with the Indian mission. Officials said Salunk would be released from hospital on Friday. Mandal and Desmukh, who were reported to be in a serious condition, are now recovering, the officials said. There were 12 Indian students in the sixth block of the situated on Miklukha Maklaya Street in southwest Moscow, when fire engulfed the hostel within no time on Sunday. Only 16 of the 37 bodies pulled out of the building have been identified so far. At Thursday’s gathering, student leaders complained of lack of adequate assistance from the Indian Embassy. They pointed out other foreign missions had been actively organising assistance for victims from other countries. Expatriate Indians living in Moscow have launched a campaign to raise funds for the Indian victims. The Indian Business Alliance has donated a significant amount of money and its president Rajesh Sharma has made an appeal to Indian companies and individuals to donate more funds. The Indian students association has done a yeoman’s job in locating Indian victims in different Moscow hospitals and rendering assistance to them, but its leaders have complained of inadequate treatment due to the lack of essential medicines in hospitals. The association has been providing food to the victims, who are unaccustomed to the local cuisine as they are newcomers to Russia. All the 12 Indian students living in the hostel had arrived in Moscow recently to pursue higher education and most have lost all their money and belongings. Most of them now have no money to pay their annual tuition fees. Some do not even have money to pay for their food.
— IANS |
|
Iran used European N-designs: diplomats
Vienna, November 28 Teheran, accused by Washington of seeking to develop nuclear weapons, told the UN nuclear agency it got the blueprints from a ‘’middleman’’ whose identity the agency had not determined, a western diplomat said on condition of anonymity. It was unclear where the ‘’middleman’’ got the drawings. The UN’s International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has said in a report Iran told the IAEA it got centrifuge drawings ‘’from a foreign intermediary around 1987’’. Centrifuges are used to purify uranium for use as fuel or in weapons. Experts say the ability to produce such material is crucial for an arms programme and the biggest hurdle any country with ambitions to build a bomb must overcome. Several diplomats familiar with the IAEA said the blueprints were of a machine by the Dutch enrichment unit of the British-Dutch-German consortium Urenco — a leader in the field of centrifuges. Iran’s ambassador to the IAEA, Mr Ali Akbar Salehi, said he had no knowledge a Urenco design had been used by Iran. ‘’This is new information to me,’’ he said. In a statement, Urenco said it had not supplied any centrifuge knowhow or machinery to Iran. ‘’Urenco would like to strongly affirm that they have never supplied any technology or components to Iran at any time,’’ it said. — Reuters
|
Washington, November 28 The President’s plane touched down at Andrews Air Force base just outside Washington at about 12.25 a.m., according to an Air Force sergeant, who had initially said the plane landed earlier. The sergeant said they had been told that the first of the two planes due to land at the base was the President’s. From start to finish, President Bush’s trip took a little over 30 hours, most of them spent in the air. With him were a handful of aides, US Secret Service agents and reporters, all of whom had been sworn to secrecy. — Reuters
|
|
Chandrika compromises on defence portfolio
Colombo, November 28 The President asked the Prime Minister to name a minister of his choice to take over defence functions that directly impact on the Norwegian-backed peace process, sources close to both sides said. The move is seen as Kumaratunga agreeing to virtually hand back the Defence Ministry in all but name to the government of Wickremesinghe, though it would be linked to a “peace advisory committee.” Political sources said the move was a face-saving exercise that could help both sides shed their differences and get back to running the country. Norway suspended its peace brokering role two weeks ago, saying they were not sure who was in charge after Kumaratunga sacked three ministers, including the Defence Minister on November 4, starting off a major power struggle. Kumaratunga’s compromise offer was made today to a four-member committee of officials trying to bridge differences between the two leaders, the sources said. She was also inviting all political parties to back the move for a “government of cooperation” after the Premier turned down her offer of a national unity government. Under the new offer, Kumaratunga is proposing that there should be no criticism of the four main areas they will focus — the peace process, strengthening democratic institutions, good governance and building infrastructure. Tension between the President and the Prime Minister who are from rival parties, came to a head when Kumaratunga took over the portfolios of Defence, Interior and Media and suspended Parliament for two weeks blocking any legislative moves against her. The Prime Minister immediately backed down from his role in the peace process saying he could no longer take responsibility for maintaining a ceasefire with Tiger rebels without control over the military. Kumaratunga’s spokesman Harim Peiris said he could neither confirm nor deny the President’s compromise offer. Constitutionally, Kumaratunga is also the Commander-in-Chief of the armed forces and has sweeping executive powers to remove any minister, even the Prime Minister, without offering any explanation. The President wanted to appoint a committee to identify areas of responsibility that should be handed over to a “minister assisting defence” who will be expected to coordinate between the President, the Prime Minister as well as the Scandinavians who are monitoring a truce between troops and Tigers. — PTI
|
|
Islamic terrorist cell uncovered in Italy
Rome, November 28 The police swoop comes two weeks after the suicide bombing which left 19 Italians dead in the Iraqi city of Nasariyah. The television report said the police was also investigating a 30-year-old Algerian who is believed to have moved to Germany. The authorities have spent more than one year investigating people with suspected links to Al-Qaida. But most of those charged and convicted were given relatively lenient sentences. Security has been tightened throughout Italy. Newspaper reports said supermarkets were being controlled by armed plainclothes policemen. Security services recently warned of a possible terrorist attack using chemical or biological weapons against the subway systems in Milan and Rome. — DPA
|
|
Phoolan features in exhibition on outlaws
Canberra, November 28 It showcases rebels and revolutionaries from India (Phoolan Devi), Australia (Ned Kelly), the UK (Robin Hood), New Zealand (Hone Heke), North America (Billy the Kid), Japan (Ishikawa Goemon and Belle Starr), Mexico (Pancho Villa) and others. The section on Phoolan Devi exhibits her spinning a wheel, which she used in jail, her certificates and awards, various books written on her and pictures of her as a bandit queen, of her surrender and draped in a sari against the background of Mahatma Gandhi’s statue. The exhibition traces her life history from the time she was 11 when her parents married her to a much older man, how she fled from him and was abducted by a band of robbers, one of whom took her as his wife, her abduction and rape after the murder of her partner. It shows how she embarked on a reign of terror against her abusers and allegedly killed 22 villagers, her negotiated surrender and the time she spent in jail. “The exhibition highlights her exploits and generosity towards the poor that earned her the respect of many low-caste men and women,” said Head of the Curatorial team. — PTI
|
|
|
China asserts authority over Taiwan Beijing, November 28 “We are deeply concerned about relevant things concerning ‘referendum legislation’ in Taiwan and are paying close attention to the development of the issue,” the official news agency said a day after Taiwan’s legislature passed the “referendum legislation.” “China opposes any person who carries out splitting activities by means of ‘referendum legislation’ or ‘Taiwan independence’,” the spokesperson said.
— PTI |
|
|
US loses thousands of jobs monthly: study Washington, November 28 Study authors Ashok Deo Bardhan and Cynthia Kroll, both researchers at the Fisher Centre for Real Estate and Urban Economics housed at the Haas School of Business, say not all of the at-risk jobs are likely to be lost. But, they note, jobs remaining in the US could be subject to pressures to lower wages and the jobs that leave may slow the nation's job growth or generate losses in related activities. The study, which compared the prevalent hourly wages in the US and India, was published in Berkeley News, a university publication. For instance a telephone operator in the US makes $12.57 an hour while his counterpart in India makes less than $1 an hour. The study says jobs most vulnerable to the new wave of outsourcing include medical-transcription services, stock-market research for financial firms, customer-service call centres, legal online-database research, and payroll and other "back office"
activities. Bardhan and Kroll say a widely quoted report issued in 2002 by Forrester Research (an independent technology-research company), which stated that 3.3 million jobs would be lost to outsourcing by 2015, already seems conservative. They point to the rate of outsourcing over the past few years to India — 25,000 to 30,000 jobs in June, 2003 alone. India, they say, is the leading destination for outsourcing due to its population's widespread use of English in education and business, institutional similarities with the US in its legal system, wide wage differentials with the US, and its large numbers of science and engineering graduates. Other locations such as China, East Asia, Russia, Israel, and Ireland also are popular and competitive outsourcing destinations, the authors say. They cite tentative evidence that shows the outsourcing of business process and software jobs generated more than a million jobs in the 1990s and hundreds of thousands more since the turn of the century. "Because white-collar work is so widespread throughout the US, many different parts of the country may feel the effects of this wave of outsourcing," says Kroll. San Francisco and San Jose, as well as expensive East Coast locations such as Boston and New York City, are vulnerable both because of their high shares of occupations that can be outsourced and because of their high cost of
labour. In terms of real-estate markets, "outsourcing will not empty out office buildings in the US," says Kroll, "but it will certainly slow the rate at which current vacancies are absorbed". Both "back office" markets and high-tech centres are likely to feel the effects, she says. Outsourcing of service jobs may prove more costly to the economy than the earlier wave of manufacturing outsourcing, Kroll and Bardhan say. This, they say, would be the case if the economy does not generate enough technological growth to replace the jobs lost with new ones and workers eventually find new work in lower-wage occupations. "On the other hand," says
Bardhan, "continuing innovation and technological advances could allow the US and California economies to keep the 'cream' of new development and higher-value-added jobs at home, while more routine activities are outsourced." This was the pattern for high-tech manufacturing outsourcing of California's low-wage assembly jobs during a downturn that brought productivity increases in its wake and a wide range of opportunities in new service jobs, he says.—IANS |
| HOME PAGE | |
Punjab | Haryana | Jammu & Kashmir |
Himachal Pradesh | Regional Briefs |
Nation | Opinions | | Business | Sports | World | Mailbag | Chandigarh | Ludhiana | National Capital | | Calendar | Weather | Archive | Subscribe | Suggestion | E-mail | |
Islamabad, November 28
