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Gulzar
gets lifetime achievement award
Bhopal
tragedy still haunts Dow |
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Hurriyat
flayed for poll boycott call Dr Khan
may be killed to silence him, says Bhutto Karuna
men kill 7 Tigers 22
killed in Indonesia Walkathon
to raise £1 m Kuwait
releases 10 Iraqi prisoners 
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Gulzar gets lifetime achievement award New York, April 26 The award was given away at a function last night organized by one of the oldest American Indian body, Association of Indians in America. The citation listed his achievements as poet, film-maker and director. “Gulzar is present day Ghalib,” said Khan in an emotionally charged address to more than 500 guests. He spoke about Gulzar’s achievements and involvement in almost all facets of the movie-making and said no one deserved the award more than him. Khan was chief guest at the dinner which was organised to raise funds for a project India’s programme to help victims of AIDS as also to spread awareness through education in the country. Observing that the AIDS is becoming a major concern for India, Project India head Samiti Khanna said more than $ 60,000 were raised at the dinner which was first fund raising for the project. The night itself was devoted to Gulzar and several of his poems were sung by various artistes. Particularly appreciated was Uma Dogra’s dance set to the tune of one of Gulzar’s poem.
— PTI |
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Bhopal tragedy still haunts Dow Almost
20 years since a deadly gas leak at the Union Carbide plant in Bhopal, the fallout of the incident on that cold December night continues to spread. In a report released in New York, economic analysts cite Dow Chemical’s acquisition of Union Carbide Corporation 16 years after the Bhopal disaster as a major concern for shareholders of the Midland, Michigan, based firm. The disaster is an ongoing concern with “significant potential” to harm Dow’s reputation or “pose material liabilities, as well as constrain the company’s investment in Asia,” says the report, “Dow Chemical: Risks for Investors,” by Innovest Strategic Value Advisors Inc. Innovest is a global leader in analyzing “non-traditional” drivers of investment risk and out-performance and higher corporate social responsibility standards. It warns that controversy over reparations to victims, deaths and birth defects related to methyl isocyanate exposure, and pollution of Bhopal’s water supply could result in potential legal liability for Dow. Union Carbide has been deemed an “absconder from justice” for failing to appear before the courts in India to face criminal charges stemming from the disaster. Efforts are underway in India to have the courts place responsibility on Dow to require Union Carbide to appear as a defendant in the criminal case. On March 17, an Appeals Court in New York ordered that US courts consider requests for remediation of contaminated soil and groundwater by Dow/Union Carbide. The court’s decision would allow some residents to sue for loss of property value and cleanup of contamination. The court also upheld the plaintiffs’ right to seek medical monitoring from Dow for injuries and symptoms related to exposure to contaminated groundwater. According to unofficial estimates, 15,000 to 20,000 Bhopal residents died as a direct result of the disaster or from health problems related to it. Dow Chemical management has gone to lengths to say that when it acquired Union Carbide it thoroughly investigated the matter and did not acquire with it any remaining liabilities with the stock purchase of the company. At the 2003 annual shareholder meeting, Dow Chemical CEO William S. Stavropoulos described Bhopal as a tragic bygone that was all but resolved in the courts, and for which the company was helpless to take any actions. Analysts say that while Dow claims it has no responsibility for the incident and that it is a tragic event of the past, investors should be concerned about current developments and the possible financial ramifications that could result. Noting that India is a growing player in the globalized chemical industry, the report warns opportunity costs could be sizable for Dow if it is constrained in such a large and growing market by the “substantial legal risk” that Dow says exists regarding Bhopal. Most survivors of the gas leak have received less than $500 of Union Carbide’s $470 million compensation payout, which has been mired in Indian bureaucracy and other delays. Last week, two activists and survivors of the disaster – Rashida Bee and Champa Devi Shukla – were rewarded for their devoted struggle for justice for survivors with the Goldman Environmental Prize. Considered the “Nobel Prize for the Environment,” it includes a no-strings-attached award of $125,000. “We are still finding children being born without lips, noses or ears. Sometimes complete hands are missing, and women have severe reproductive problems,” said Rashida, who suffers from respiratory and vision problems from gas exposure. Since 1984 she has lost six family members to cancer. Champa Devi, who has one grandchild born with congenital deformities, lost her husband and her health. Rashida and Champa are part of a group of organizations demanding the extradition of Union Carbide officials and its former CEO Warren Anderson on criminal charges to face trial in Bhopal. They also want long-term health care and monitoring for survivors and their children as well as the release of information on the health impact of the gases that were leaked; the clean up of the former Union Carbide site and the surrounding area; economic and social support to survivors who can no longer pursue their trade because of illness or to families widowed by the disaster. On May 13 they plan to attend Dow’s shareholders’ meeting in Midland, Michigan, to attend the unveiling of a resolution introduced by a socially responsible management firm. The resolution warns of the “reputation risk” to the company if it continues to ignore Bhopal survivors’ demands. “We have been fighting for many years now. Every day more and more people are lending support to our struggle,” Ms Shukla said. “We are sure that we will soon have the support we need to bring Dow to its knees.” |
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Hurriyat flayed for poll boycott call London, April 26 Stating that the boycott call had no takers in Jammu, Ladakh and border areas of Kashmir, Mr Gilani, who heads the Jammu and Kashmir Council of Human
Rights (JKCHR), said anti-poll campaigners had failed to make any dent as voting percentage in the first round was satisfactory. “There was a partial or limited response to the poll boycott call in Baramula and Srinagar.... Boycotting the elections would not help resolve the Kashmir problem,” he said. Mr Gilani said the valley-based politicians had a limited reach and their anti-poll campaign remains confined to only certain urban areas the Kashmir valley. “A poll boycott call could only enhance and strengthen the culture of a commercialised politics,” he added.
— UNI |
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Dr Khan may be killed to silence him, says Bhutto Canberra, April 26 Dr Abdul Qadir Khan, long regarded as a national hero for helping Pakistan obtain a nuclear deterrent, confessed in February to transferring sensitive technology to North Korea, Iran and Libya for money. “There is a concern amongst many of us that Dr Khan may be killed to silence him, and that it will be shown as a heart attack or something else,” Bhutto told Australian Broadcasting Corp. Television. Details of the interview were released to the media before it was scheduled to air later today on ABC’s Four Corners programme. Ms Bhutto claimed Dr Khan would never act alone. “I just know that wherever he went, he went under orders,” she said. “I know he didn’t do it on his own. They played to his ego, but he didn’t go on his own. He went because he was ordered,” said Ms Bhutto. In his confession broadcast live throughout Pakistan, Dr Khan claimed to have acted with his colleagues without the authority of the government.
— AP |
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Karuna men kill 7 Tigers Colombo, April 26 A spokesperson of the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM), Ms Agnes Bragadottir, said the LTTE’s political wing head, S.P. Thamilselvan, had lodged a complaint with the SLMM today that renegade Karuna’s loyalists had entered into LTTE-controlled areas from the army-controlled areas in the East and killed seven of their cadres last night near Vavunativu. “Our monitors on the field have gone to the spot to clarify the complaint and are waiting for their reports. We are also in touch with the Sri Lankan government and the armed forces to clarify the issue,” Ms Bragadottir said. The SLMM, which suspended its operation in areas controlled by renegade Karuna, resumed its full operation after the LTTE cadres took control over the entire area from Karuna’s loyalists early this month, ending a 42-day long dangerous revolt. A military spokesman, Col Sumedha Perera, said the army had no confirmation of what had happened in areas controlled by the LTTE in the East.
— UNI |
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22 killed in Indonesia Ambon, April 26 The violence which flared yesterday after a parade by Christian separatists was the worst since a pact in February 2002 ended three years of sectarian fighting in which some 5,000 persons died. Hundreds of extra police and troops have been rushed to the waterfront city in the Maluku islands. Rivai Ambon, director of Al Fatah hospital, told AFP that 15 persons had died at his hospital or had been brought in dead since yesterday. Six of them died today, he said, and 60 others were still receiving treatment. Tikauli, an official with the Maluku branch of the Indonesian Red Cross, said after visiting Bakti Rahayu hospital that five persons had died or were brought there already dead since yesterday. She said one man with a gunshot wound was brought in today. A nurse at Haulussy hospital said there were no further deaths besides two who died yesterday of bullet wounds. Another person died of a heart attack.
— AFP |
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Walkathon to raise £1 m London, April
26 Announcing this at the annual Vaisakhi Dinner and Dance organised by
the Association here last night, Grewal said it would take
approximately five to six months to complete the ‘walkathon’
commencing in October — from the Pakistani capital to the extreme
tip of South India. Grewal had completed the London Marathon in 2001
and raised substantial funds for charity. Satya Brata Pal, Deputy
High Commissioner of India, who was the chief guest, lauded the
efforts of Grewal recalling that Alexander the Great and Gazni Mahmood
had also covered those areas and raised a lot of money but not for
charity. — PTI |
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Kuwait releases 10 Iraqi prisoners Kuwait, April 26 The Iraqi men, most of whom were jailed in Kuwait for a few months and had completed their sentences, were reunited with their families at the Kuwait-Iraq border under the supervision of Kuwait’s branch of the ICRC. “These are common law detainees, meaning they have nothing to do with, and were not detained in relation to the conflict of 1990-91 (Gulf war),” ICRC communication officer Fouad Bawaba told Reuters. He said most of them were detained recently. The repatriation was agreed and coordinated by Kuwaiti authorities and US-led forces in Iraq. Kuwait was the launch pad for last year’s US-led war in Iraq which toppled Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein, whose forces invaded the Gulf Arab state of Kuwait in 1990.
— Reuters |
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10 US Marines hurt in Fallujah Baghdad, April 26 |
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