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US warplanes bomb Baquba, 20 rebels dead
US, UK up the ante on Palestinian state
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Hurriyat
willing to talk: Mirwaiz
Maoist rebels act as tourist guides
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Gbagbo accuses France of propping rebels
Pak SC asked to pre-empt twin-office ordinance
First Muslim woman delivers sermon
Captors release 2 relatives of Iraqi PM
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US warplanes bomb Baquba, 20 rebels dead
Baquba (Iraq), November 15 Another 80-85 militants were still reported in the area where skirmishes were ongoing, said US Army Staff Sergeant Steve Johnson. The unrest began at about 8:00 am (1030 IST) when a bus carrying about 20-to-40 insurgents arrived in Baquba, the sergeant said. Iraqi national guards clashed with the gangs of militants in three separate skirmishes, while others were spotted planting roadside bombs and US-led military forces in the area were attacked from a mosque. A weapon cache, including rocket propelled grenades, mortars and ammunition was found in the mosque, he noted. The escalating lawlessness prompted the military to drop two 500-pound bombs on the suspected insurgent targets on the outskirts of Baquba, 60 km northeast of Baghdad, the official added. The attack was coupled with five artillery strikes.
— AFP |
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US, UK up the ante on Palestinian state
CREATION of a Palestinian state is possible within four years, President George Bush said yesterday, and promised to throw America's full weight behind a new effort to bring peace to the Middle East.
The President made his strong commitment after talks with Tony Blair at the White House at which the Prime Minister urged him to devote more energy to the peace process than he did in his first term. President Bush's words were warmly welcomed by Mr Blair. But Mr Bush stopped short of giving his immediate backing to two ideas proposed by the Prime Minister, the appointment of a new US envoy to the Middle East and calling a peace conference, possibly in London. Although the two leaders agreed to a working plan for their two governments, no timetable was made public. US officials said Washington first wanted to ensure the Palestinians elect a moderate, pragmatic leadership committed to democracy. At a joint press conference at the White House, President Bush said Yasser Arafat's death had brought "a new opportunity to make progress towards a lasting peace". He ducked questions about putting pressure on Israel, but insisted its pullout from Gaza could lay the foundations for implementing the Middle East road-map and final-status negotiations about a "two-state solution". The President said there was a "great chance" of creating a Palestinian state and pledged to "spend the capital of the United States on such a state." He added: "I would like to see it done in four years. I think it is possible." He did not rule out a peace conference but wanted to be sure it would "achieve something". Mr Blair was the first foreign leader to meet the re-elected President. The President lavished praise on Mr Blair and angrily curled his lip when he was asked about criticism that the Prime Minister was his "poodle". But he appeared to acknowledge that their close relationship caused domestic difficulties for Mr Blair. Mr Blair denied he was seeking a commitment on the Middle East as a "payback" for Britain's support for the US in Iraq. "We are an ally of the US because we believe in fighting this war on terrorism," he said. The two leaders also trumpeted a shared vision to extend freedom and democracy through the world which echoed the views of neo-conservatives in America. Mr Blair was careful to say he was not talking about "interfering in every state around the world", but spoke of a shift since the 9/11 attacks. In public, the President and Prime Minister papered over their differences over the possible use of military might to thwart Iran's nuclear ambitions, a course opposed by Britain. President Bush warned that violence in Iraq could worsen before the elections due in January but both leaders vowed to "finish the job". But the Prime Minister's critics were sceptical. Peter Kilfoyle,
the former defence minister, said last night that the two leaders had produced only "a few warm words" on the Middle East and criticised
their "evangelical tone". — By arrangement with The Independent, London |
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Hurriyat willing to talk: Mirwaiz London, November 15 “Definitely we would sit and talk if invited. If the Indian Prime Minister wants to take any initiative towards the political solution to the Kashmir problem, we would seriously consider it,” Hurriyat Conference chairman Mirwaiz Omer Farooq said in a BBC Hindi programme last night. “We have decided if any invitation is extended, we would sit and talk, but at the same time we want to make it clear that since two rounds of talks have already taken place with the Indian government, when NDA was in power, it is important now that the Government of India permits the Hurriyat leaders to visit Pakistan, and then the process of talks would be really meaningful,” Mr Mirwaiz Farooq said. Asked whether they had any hopes from Singh’s two-day visit to the state from November 17, the Hurriyat leader said: “See if the visit is only for an economic package, like giving money for schools and other buildings, then it would serve no purpose. It would give Kashmiris a feeling that the Indian government wants to buy them over.” “However, if the Prime Minister has something new to offer to take the peace process forward, and if he is to announce some Confidence Building Measures, which would help towards the political solution, like the release of innocent people languishing in jails since many years, an end to human rights violations, then Hurriyat would certainly welcome it. His recent announcements give hope, but further work needs to be done.” Asked whether the Central Government has already made any offer to it, Mr Mirwaiz Farooq said: “Nothing has come from Indian Government so far. It has been only through media and that too when the Home Minister visited Kashmir, but there is nothing concrete. Talking is fine, but where are the passports for the Hurriyat leaders to go to Kashmir (PoK)?” Asked why the Hurriyat has been keeping away from the UPA government so far, the Hurriyat leader said: “See, when the Congress-led government took over at the Centre, we felt that Congress had a moral responsibility towards Kashmir, because it can be said that it is Congress which is responsible for the birth of the Kashmir issue or made it an issue, from the times of Pandit Nehru to Indira Gandhi.” “Therefore, we had a feeling, the Congress-led government would deal with this important and sensitive issue with all seriousness. Initially, there was a lot of confusion, with statements from Delhi saying talks would be within the framework of the Constitution, and then talks could be unconditional and subsequently that there is no use talking to Hurriyat. But the latest developments give hope.” Asked what led Hurriyat to talk to the previous NDA government and stay away from the present government, Mr Mirwaiz Farooq said: “We went to talk to Mr L.K. Advani in his capacity as the Deputy Prime Minister and not as Home Minister. Our agreement with the NDA was on three points, first, talks on Kashmir would be unconditional, second both sides would look for a solution seriously, and thirdly, Pakistan would be included in the talks at some stage.” — PTI
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Maoist rebels act as tourist guides
Kathmandu, November 15 Incidentally, Maoist rebels have refrained from attacking the tourists and also act as a guide to trekkers. While charging the foreign trekkers, they issue a receipt, which is seen as a valid document for trekker to pass through the area. This amount is apart from the fee that a foreign tourist has to pay to the state. Japan’s Osaka government official Sayako Domae, who was on an inspection tour of the trekking tracts near Pokhara told The Tribune that there were Maoists all along the track. “They were quite friendly. But, I was nervous,” she said. Her trekking guide Vir Bahadur said coming in contact with Maoist in the trekking tracks has now become quite a common feature and each tourist has to pay around (Nepalese) Rs 1200 as tax to them and for which they issue a receipt. Palace massacre and the Maoist insurgency has virtually dwindled tourist inflow into the country. According to Nepal Tourism Board data, there was a decrease by 12 per cent in total figures relative to the same period previous year.” Apart from new civil aviation policy and rail link between India and Nepal, he said the ministry is actively in discussion with the Chinese government to make Kalaish Mansarovar yatra economical and less time consuming. Nepal Tourism Minister Deep Upadhyay said, “we are in talks with the Chinese government to allow our flights/helicopters to directly go to holy site.” “However, Beijing is insisting that the pilgrims should travel by road from Nepal border, as direct flight would hurt their earning,” he said, adding “we are positive that a final deal would be struck soon.” The new route, apart from doing away from the quota system for Indians in New Delhi, would offer Hindus to travel to holy site within a few days and would cost less than 50 per cent of the present rates.
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Gbagbo accuses France of propping rebels Paris, November 15 Mr Gbagbo ratcheted up the war of words between Abidjan and Paris in an interview with Liberation daily one day after President Jacques Chirac said French forces were preventing Ivory Coast from succumbing to chaos or a fascist-style leadership. Relations between the two have been tense since Ivorian forces killed nine French peacekeepers in a bombing raid on a French base on November 6. Paris responded by crippling the state's air force, sparking violence against French citizens there. ''Using the death of its soldiers at Bouake as a pretext, France has destroyed our absolute security,'' Mr Gbagbo said, referring to the fighter jets he said had been bombing rebel positions and had brought his forces within a day of retaking the rebel stronghold of Bouake. ''Objectively, it has taken the rebels' side,'' he said. Asked about Chirac's warning about the danger of leadership emerging in Abidjan with fascist tendencies, Mr Gbagbo recalled that the French President had supported the single party that ruled Ivory Coast for 40 years. ''What could be closer to fascism than a single party? We were in prison under the single party supported by France. This is an insult,'' he said. Mr Gbagbo said French troops were now less visible on the streets in Ivory Coast but added that their deployment after the air raid that killed the French peacekeepers was intolerable. ''It was like the invasion of Prague in 1968,'' he said. Meanwhile, French Defence Minister Michele Alliot-Marie said Mr Gbagbo's priority should be to calm the situation in his country and ''stop all racist and xenophobic declarations'' coming from his entourage. He should stop ''the provocations, manipulations and calls to hunt down whites,'' she told Europe 1 radio. She said the 5,000 people evacuated from Ivory Coast were not all French nationals: ''There were about 20 countries, European and non-European, whose citizens felt threatened. Ivorians also fled.'' ''We first went to Ivory Coast at the request of President Gbagbo,'' she said. ''We are there today because the United Nations asked us to be in Ivory Coast. We are on a mission and we will see it through to the end.'' — Reuters
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Pak SC asked to pre-empt twin-office ordinance
Islamabad, November 15 Mr Shahid Orakzai, who had earlier moved a petition asking the Supreme Court to declare the President to Hold Another Office Bill 2004 as against the constitution, has now filed the stay application, seeking to pre-empt the government's move to promulgate an ordinance in this regard. Early hearing of the constitutional petition by a larger Bench has also been requested since the matter is urgent, as 12 of the 30 days that the President has under Article 75 of the Constitution to give his assent to the Bill had already passed. In his application, he pointed out that the legislative procedure would not be completed before December 31 in case President Pervez Musharraf invoked his special powers under Article 75 to propose any amendment in the recently passed President to Hold Another Office Bill 2004 by the two Houses of ParliaNepal Tourism Minister Deep Kumar Upadhyay admitted that the Maoist insurgency in the country has affected the tourism sector badly. In case the President proposed any amendment to the Bill, that amendment would be sent to the two Houses which would then refer it to a 16-member mediation committee to discuss and approve the amendment in 90 days. The provision of 16-member mediation committee was inserted in Article 70 of the Constitution through the Legal Framework Order (LFO), but has not been constituted ever since, he said. Even President Musharraf had not yet framed the rules for the mediation committee, which is to evolve an agreed Bill in 90 days in case of any differences between the two Houses. The stay application said the President had a difficult choice under Article 75 since the 'faults of legislation' were now a public knowledge the assent by the President would be a violation of his constitutional oath. He said the Bill was in direct conflict with Article 43 of the Constitution. Article 43 does not allow the President to hold "any office of profit in the service of Pakistan" and the lawmakers could not declare any office of profit a non-profit one, he stated. Since the National Assembly is not in session, the federation may issue an ordinance to rectify the same position. — By arrangement with The Dawn, Karachi
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First Muslim woman delivers sermon Toronto, November 15 In a sharp departure from the Islamic tradition where women never preach or lead prayers unless it is an entirely female congregation, Maryam Mirza read the second half of the Id sermon at the Rexdale mosque here on Saturday. The mosque's Imam, Jabar Ally, gave the first half of the Id sermon, while his daughter Naudia Ally also delivered a Ramadan address in front of over 300 Muslims. "For our survival in this world, humans must change with the times or we'll be left behind," Mirza said in her sermon. "The same concept can be applied to religion. Muslim brothers and sisters, we must all help Islam move forward and I believe we are doing just that." United Muslim Association leaders, including the Imam, said the larger Islamic community doesn't agree with their stance allowing women to lead prayer and sermons. "We feel that if God is not discriminating, who gives me the authority to discriminate against a gender?" Ally said. — UNI
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Captors release 2 relatives of
Iraqi PM
Doha, November 15 Militants abducted Allawi’s cousin, Ghazi, 75, his wife and their pregnant daughter-in-law from the capital last Tuesday. The following day, a previously unknown Islamist group claimed responsibility and threatened to behead them within 48 hours unless Allawi halted a major offensive on the rebel enclave of Fallujah and released all prisoners held in Iraq.
— AFP |
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