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Austria’s Jelinek gets Nobel for literature Cambodian King has abdicated, says Assembly President Indian origin student held on murder charge Saddam spent billions to
get UN sanctions lifted: CIA Taliban’s night letters, bullets spread message of fear ‘I am role model for Afghan women,’ says Dr Jalal |
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Austria’s Jelinek gets Nobel for literature
Stockholm, October 7 Born in 1946 to a father of Czech-Jewish origins and a Viennese mother, she was best-known for her autobiographical 1983 novel ‘The Piano Teacher’, which was made into a movie by Michael Haneke in 2001. The Swedish Academy praised “her musical flow of voices and counter-voices in novels and plays that with extraordinary linguistic zeal revealed the absurdity of society’s cliches and their subjugating power”. She made her literary debut with a collection of poems in 1967 but won wider acclaim in the German-reading audience with her 1975 novel ‘Women as Lovers’ and ‘Wonderful, Wonderful Times’ of 1980. A controversial figure in her homeland, Jelinek belonged to the Austrian communist party from 1974-91. She is the first woman to win the prestigious prize, worth 10 million Swedish crowns ($1.36 million), since 1996, and she is also the 10th women to win the Nobel Literature prize.
— Reuters |
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Cambodian King has abdicated, Phnom Penh, October 7 "According to a royal message that we have received and read to the National Assembly, the king has abdicated," said Prince Norodom Ranariddh, adding that he hoped the king could be persuaded to change his mind. "The King said Chea Sim (the Senate President) will be the acting head of state and he has written that from now on, Norodom Sihanouk is retired," the Prince said. The king, (81), had been due to return to Cambodia today after repeated threats to abdicate after being sidelined during a year-long political crisis and amid concerns about his succession. He said the Throne Council, which is supposed to elect the king's successor, should meet soon and ask him to reconsider. The King has spent nearly a year in self-imposed exile in China and North Korea after he failed to negotiate a deal between feuding political parties in the wake of inconclusive national elections in July 2003. His return was called off after opposition leader Sam Rainsy yesterday wrote to the King warning him of 'at least verbally violent demonstrations' planned to coincide with his return to Phnom Penh.
— AFP |
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Indian origin student held on murder charge
Johannesburg, October 7 Twenty-four-year-old Donovan Samuel Moodley was arrested on Monday and appeared in the Randburg magistrate's court yesterday in connection with the kidnapping and murder of Leigh Matthews, South African daily 'News24' said. Both Moodley and Matthews were students at the private Bond University in the suburb of Sandton. Moodley has been charged with murder, kidnapping, robbery and extortion, the paper said. Moodley, who lives with his parents in the suburb of Alberton, allegedly attempted to extort more than Rand 300,000 from the Matthews family after holding their daughter to ransom. Despite the father paying him about Rand 30,000, without the knowledge of the police, Moodley allegedly went ahead and murdered the young girl. The case has been adjourned till October 15, when Moodley will make a formal bail application.
— PTI |
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Saddam spent billions to
get United Nations, October 7 At the same time, Saddam and his government managed to amass $11 billion through shadowy deals to circumvent the sanctions, first imposed in 1990 and lifted after the US-led invasion a year ago, said the report, released yesterday. The report was part of a 1,200-page survey for the CIA by Mr Charles Duelfer, a former UN weapons inspector, who concluded that Iraq had no stockpiles of biological and chemical weapons or a nuclear arms programme before the US invasion last year. It was published on the CIA's website www.cia.gov. The list cited names from France, Russia and China, all permanent members of the UN Security Council, which supervised the programme.
— Reuters |
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Taliban’s night letters, bullets ABDUL Razzik learned of the Taliban's intention to kill him at the end of this week when he read the letter pinned to his village mosque. The 'Shubnama' - night letter - was not the usual half-literate scrawl, but composed and printed by computer with Mr Razzik's name highlighted in red. Normally, the grandfather, who works for a US-owned agricultural company, would shrug off such threats. In the Helmand province, though, these are not normal times. In the past few days, Taliban killing squads have fanned out across the province looking for soft targets. If they kill enough people between now and Saturday, the voters may be too scared to vote in the presidential election. Because the US military is too difficult to attack and anyone working for foreigners or the Kabul Government or in reconstruction is a target. Foreigners are the biggest prize, Taliban commanders are said to have put a $50,000 bounty on their heads. In the past week, small groups of guerrillas armed with Kalashnikovs and rocket-propelled grenades have been seen moving on motorbikes and pick-up trucks across the region near Kandahar. Many are teenagers brainwashed on fundamentalism who have crossed from refuges in Pakistan or the neighbouring Uruzgan Province, a Taliban stronghold and home of Mullah Omar, their leader. They are on a spree and it is expected to prove bloody. Mr Razzik (57) believes few people still support the Taliban in Helmand, an opium poppy-growing region in southern Afghanistan's Pushtun belt, so the guerrillas must rely on fear to sabotage Saturday's vote. Not even Afghan President Hamid Karzai's vice-presidential running mate is safe after he was targeted yesterday by an ambush in the north-east that killed at least one man and injured five others. The vice-presidential hopeful, Mr Ahmed Zia Massood, escaped unharmed and was flown back to Kabul after his convoy was attacked by a roadside bomb or landmine set off by remote control as it passed along a road in Faizabad, the provincial capital. Rumours of attacks are seized on in the bazaars of north Helmand and politics is hardly discussed. Many voters are worried about the ink that will stain their hands, used to prevent multiple voting, fearing it will betray them to wrathful Taliban. The violence has already started. A few miles from the town of Kajaki, two government soldiers were gunned down in a night attack and earlier in the day a guard working for a Western construction firm was ambushed on his motorbike on the road south of the town. He bled to death before a helicopter could arrive from Kabul. The killer was his cousin, a Taliban who had arrived from Peshawar in Pakistan. He took revenge after the guard refused to plant a bomb on the site. "Things will be very bad in the next few days," said Engineer Akbar, another educated Afghan who works with foreigners. He has told his five sons to stay away from school for the next week. — By arrangement with
The Independent, London |
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‘I am role model for Afghan women,’ says Dr Jalal
A feisty, fast-talking Tajik, Masooda Jalal is the lone female candidate in Afghanistan’s first presidential elections to be held on October 9. “I’m the first woman in Afghanistan’s 5,000-year history to run for such a high office,” she declared in a phone interview from Kabul. This distinction has attracted both admiration and ire from her fellow Afghans. “The people of Afghanistan are responding very well to my campaign,” she said. However, according to Eurasianet, an online political analysis website, the Religious Order Department of Afghanistan’s Supreme Court has twice tried to declare Dr Jalal’s candidacy both un-Islamic and illegal. “I’m not doing anything that breaks the law,” Dr Jalal insisted, pointing out that the Loya Jirga in December 2003, adopted a constitution, which clearly defines the equality of men and women before the law. It also provides an incentive for women’s political participation by guaranteeing at least 25 per cent female representation in the lower house of Parliament. “It is not new to have women leaders in Islamic countries,” she added. A pediatrician and former United Nations World Food Program worker, Dr Jalal made her first foray into politics in 2002, when she challenged Hamid Karzai’s bid for the presidential office at an emergency Loya Jirga. Politics, says the 42-year-old mother of three, “is a continuation of my humanitarian, social and community services to the people of Afghanistan.” In a nation not acclaimed for its treatment to women, Dr Jalal finds it ironic that despite being the sole female candidate, she is the only one who can “freely travel around Kabul.” “None of the male candidates have the special cooperation of the people,” Dr Jalal said. “My campaign is focused around the country - throughout the provinces. I am getting closer to communities. I am going to districts and the countryside.” “The others need security guards wherever they go,” she said. Security concerns — underscored by a recent rocket attack on his helicopter - have placed severe restrictions on President Karzai’s campaign. “People complain I have a lazy campaign but I can’t fly around the country because of security and I don’t have money,” Mr Karzai told a British newspaper this week. Afghanistan’s Presidential elections could prove to be a historic event for a country that has, over the past 25 years, survived Soviet occupation, civil war, failed governance, severe repression of women, and most recently the repressive rule of the Taliban. Dr Jalal hopes her candidacy will give Afghan women a boost. “I am a role model for them. I am giving courage to the women of Afghanistan,” she said. While her decision to enter politics initially worried her family, they are now “very proud.” “My husband was very worried,” Dr Jalal admitted. “He said he did not want to lose the mother of his children… My parents said the family’s reputation would be harmed if I lost.” Besides her deputies Habib Soheili and Sayed-Mohammad-Alem Amini, Dr Jalal relies on the advice from her husband, who has since traded his apprehension for the mantle of campaign manager. Dr Jalal is aware her limited financial resources and political clout may ultimately prove no match against her formidable political foes. “Unlike one candidate who is surrounding himself by all powers to stay in office, candidates like me don’t even have a small percentage of these powers,” she said, alluding to Mr Karzai’s support from Washington. “How can we call the result of the election fair and democratic? How can we say it represents the will of the people and reflects their political rights? Afghanistan is not democratic,” Dr Jalal declared, “if it continues like this it will bring bad reputation to democracy.” “We the people of Afghanistan want real democracy. We want the rights of citizens to be respected. Just like other people in the world… We want freedom, fairness, human rights - no dishonesty, no influence from internal military forces or foreign powers.” |
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Stockholm, October 7
