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India to
quicken issue of visas for Pak businessmen
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Israeli
army kills nine Palestinians
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India to quicken issue of visas for Pak businessmen Karachi, January 28 Making his first visit to this southern port city, Indian High Commissioner Shivshankar Menon also talked about plans to run visa camps to enable more Pakistanis to travel to India. Addressing the Federation of Pakistan Chambers of Commerce and Industry (PCCI), he said the Indian High Commission currently cleared business visas in three weeks to “bonafide” Pakistan businessmen. “We are opening a separate window for business visas in the High Commission of India at Islamabad and when our staffing levels permit, we shall be running visa camps in Karachi as well,” he said. His announcement followed appeals from local people about the need to travel more than 1,000 km to Islamabad to obtain Indian visa. The Indian consulate was closed here in 1992 following differences between the two countries. Menon is here on a three-day visit to interact with the top Pakistani businessmen and industrialists on the steps to be taken to step up trade between the two countries. Announcing the steps to improve speedy clearance of visas, Menon in his address to the PCCI said the MFN option offered the easy way towards stepping up trade between the two countries. He said according to studies the MFN option could increase the trade up to $6 billion. In his address to the PCCI, Menon said, besides the MFN option, South Asian Free Trade Area (SAPTA) framework treaty, approved during this month’s SAARC summit at Islamabad also provided a new opportunity to step up trade relations between the two countries. “The other route which now shows considerable promise is to use the mechanisms available to us in SAARC. Through the reciprocal exchange of tariff preferences under SAPTA in the last few months, over 760 tariff lines have been opened by the Government of Pakistan for trade with other South Asian countries. “The framework agreement of SAFTA would represent a qualitative shift to a short negative list between the two countries. It will certainly be the endeavour of the Government of India to bring SAFTA into force on the due date, January 1, 2006,” he said. Stressing the need for improving bilateral trade ties, Menon said after Independence, the India-Pakistan trade formed 16 per cent of the foreign trade by both countries but declined to $234 million last year. However, the unofficial indirect trade last year was estimated at $2 billion, which showed the trade potential between the two countries, he added. Menon also offered to look into any suggestions by Pakistani businessmen about non-tariff barriers (NTB) in India.
— PTI |
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Vietnam confirms two deaths from bird flu Hanoi, January 28 The latest victims were two sisters from northern Thai Binh province, who died last week, said Hoang Thuy Long, director of the National Institute of Hygiene and Epidemology. “Test results on Tuesday showed that they were positive with H5N1 strain of bird flu,” he said. The two women, aged 23 and 30, were admitted to the Institute of Clinical Research for Tropical Medicine on January 13 and died on January 22. Their 31-year-old brother had died on January 14 but he was cremated so no samples were available for testing, said Long. WHO officials said today that they had not been notified of the latest cases. BANGKOK:
A Thai woman suspected of having bird flu has died, bringing the toll from the disease to six suspected deaths and two confirmed fatalities, health officials said today. “A 57-year-old woman died (yesterday) from severe pneumonia. She raised some 40 to 50 chickens, which all died, but we have to wait for lab test results,” said Disease Control Department Director Charal Trinvuthipong. Charal told a press briefing that a seven-year-old boy from the worst-hit Suphan Buri province who has a confirmed case of bird flu remained in a critical but stable condition in Bangkok’s main children’s hospital. DHAKA:
Bangladesh has stepped up vigil against the deadly bird flu virus at its borders. The Bangladesh Rifles (BDR) has been instructed to keep an eye at all borders so that no chicken or any other poultry product can enter the country illegally, The Daily Star reported today quoting sources in the Home Ministry. COLOMBO:
The Sri Lankan Government and poultry industry officials today held an emergency meeting to discuss further measures to prevent an outbreak of bird flu. The talks between agricultural officials, industry representatives and poultry farmers follow Sri Lanka’s move to ban all imports of live chicken and poultry products. PHNOM PENH:
Cambodian Health Minister Hong Sun Huot today said the country had no human cases of bird flu after two persons tested for the disease were cleared of infection. “We have found the bird flu virus in the country, but it has not infected humans so far. We have tested suspected human cases... but they don’t have the virus,” he told reporters. SEOUL:
South Korea today banned imports of poultry from China after Beijing reported its first case of the deadly bird flu, the agriculture ministry said. ‘’China told us late last night that they had bird flu cases and we have banned imports of chickens, ducks and their processed products from the country,” the ministry said in a statement. KARACHI:
Retail chicken prices have plummeted here after consumers panicked over confirmation of an avian flu outbreak in the country, industry officials said today. Costing Rs 72 ($ 1.26) per kilogram just 10 days ago, the price for live chickens has fallen by over 60 per cent to Rs 32 ($ 0.84). Pakistan is the first South Asian country to detect the outbreak of avian influenza H7 and H9, a less dangerous variation of the H5N1 strain that has hit several South East Asian countries, causing at least 10 human deaths and the culling of millions of birds. Since November, some 3.5 million chickens have died on 3,000 farms around Karachi.
— AFP/UNI |
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Bangkok declared ‘danger zone’ Bangkok, January 28 Bangkok’s Deputy Mayor Prapan Kitisin said Bangkok was a “danger zone” after the avian disease was detected in a fighting cock, chickens and ducks. Authorities have announced that poultry cannot be moved within a 50-km radius of the city.
— PTI |
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Slim victory for Blair govt
London, January 28 At the end of a six-hour debate, the government won the vote yesterday by the minuscule margin, with 316 voting for the bill and 311 against, reducing the government’s 161-seat majority to just five. The poll was the closest the Prime Minister has come to losing a Commons vote in nearly seven years in power and the rebellion - 72 Labour MPs voted against the government - will still be seen as a direct challenge to his authority. Opening the debate on the bill, Education Secretary Charles Clarke told MPs that allowing universities to charge more than the proposed £ 3,000 maximum “forms no part of this government’s agenda.” At present, the institutes charge £ 1,150. A defeat would also deprive middle class people the right to pay their fees back after they graduate, not while they were at university, and to have outstanding debts written off after 25 years, he said.
— PTI 
London: BBC management was “defective” and its governors should have made “more detailed investigations” into its May 29 report alleging that intelligence on Iraq was “sexed up,” the judge who conducted an inquiry into the suicide of weapons expert David Kelly said today. “I consider that its editorial system was defective in that Andrew Gilligan, its reporter, was allowed to broadcast his report... without editors having seen a script,” Hutton said. The BBC radio report was “unfounded,” he added.
— AFP |
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3 killed in car bomb attack on hotel Baghdad, January 28 The explosion hit the Shahine hotel, frequently used by foreign businessmen, in the city’s upmarket Karrada district and a small police station across the street shortly after 9 am. “There are at least three dead,” said Lieut Ahmed Abdul Karim, shortly after the blast. A large portion of the hotel is occupied by Iraq’s Interim Minister for Labour Sami Azara al-Majun, according to security officials. “The minister was praying when the blast happened. He is safe,” said Uday Nuri, one of the minister’s guards Lieut Hussein Ali, chief of police patrols in Karrada, said the bomb was concealed inside an ambulance that drove up to the hotel at high speed. A hotel guard who was manning a barrier said a suicide bomber was responsible for the blast.
— AFP |
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Israeli army kills nine Palestinians Jerusalem, January 28 Soldiers launched the raid to flush out militants who frequently fire mortars at settlements in Netzarim, an Israeli Army spokesman said, adding that the troops spotted five armed Palestinians approaching an army patrol near Netzarim and the soldiers had to open fire. However, local media reports quoted Palestinian witnesses as saying that gunmen traded fire with Israeli troops when tanks and armoured bulldozers moved out of Netzarim. The Islamic Jihad has vowed to revenge the deaths of its militants. “The bloody message has been received... and the Palestinian people will know how to respond to it,” said Mohammed Al-Hindi, a leader of Islamic Jihad faction. The Israeli spokesperson denied reports that an ambulance worker was also wounded when his vehicle was struck by Israeli fire, saying there were heavy exchanges of fire but no ambulance had been targeted.
— UNI |
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LONDON:
The Chairman of the BBC resigned on Wednesday. The broadcaster apologised for some of its reporting on the build-up to the war in Iraq after an inquiry by a senior judge lambasted the corporation. The inquiry by Lord Hutton into the suicide of weapons expert David Kelly had earlier singled out journalist Andrew Gilligan, the BBC management and its supervisory board of governors for criticism. BBC News 24 said Chairman Gavyn Davies had decided to step down in the wake of Hutton’s findings.
— Reuters