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Pak opposition rejects talks offer
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Bush committed to fostering US-India ties, says Saran Palestinians reject Sharon’s peace “test”
USA deports over 1.5 lakh
illegal aliens
Arafat’s medical file handed over to
Suha: Lawyer Myanmar frees another political prisoner,
says source UK looks up to India
for dentists
Michael Jackson sued by antiques dealer
13 die hailing Togo,
EU ties
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Pak opposition rejects talks offer
Islamabad, November 20 People’s Party Parliamentarians (PPP) Senator Farhatullah Babar termed the address “a sop to a nation beset with myriad problems and a repetition of pious hopes and vague promises”. Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz) chairman Raja Zafarul Haq said the speech showed that Mr Aziz lacked a culture of ‘tolerance and conviction’. Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal (MMA) leader and Jamaat-i-Islami’s (JI) deputy chief Liaquat Baloch said Mr Aziz had no mandate to hold talks with the opposition as he was simply following the policies of Gen Pervez Musharraf. Senator Farhatullah Babar, in a statement, said: “The people of Pakistan have heard too often similar tall promises of rulers, only to be broken with impunity.” “How many times the nation will be hoodwinked with the promises of socio-economic development, poverty alleviation, employment generation, speedy dispensation of justice, provincial harmony and dialogue with opposition political parties,” he said, adding that five years ago “prime minister’s boss Gen Musharraf also made similar promises”. “It is a joke with the nation as on the one hand the government has invited the opposition for talks while on the other the issue of President’s uniform has already been settled by Parliament,” he said. Mr Babar said Mr Aziz would be remembered in the history as a Prime Minister whose government paved the way for politicising the military and piloted a bill aimed at making the army chief as President of the country. “It is the most dubious distinction of Shaukat Aziz to have allowed the re-writing of the civil-military equation on the terms of the military alone and thereby doing a lasting disservice to democracy and the supremacy of Parliament,” Mr Babar added. He said that before Mr Aziz became the prime minister, he had promised an ‘efficient’ government, but ended up with a cabinet of over 60 members to buy off his own party men. He said Shaukat Aziz’s nomination and election as prime minister was itself a product of “manipulation and electoral fraud” and, therefore, he failed to evoke any credibility. The prime minister had spoken of creating jobs and making recruitments, but was unable to send back hundreds of serving and retired military personnel who, he said, had occupied jobs meant for civilians. Mr Aziz had spoken of a dialogue with the opposition, but he was unable to heed a demand made by his own party leaders on the floor for the release of political prisoners, Mr Babar said. PML-N chairman Raja Zafarul Haq said Mr Aziz had been out of the country for decades and, therefore, had no idea of the issues of the people of Pakistan. He said Mr Aziz had used very derogatory language against the opposition for exercising their parliamentary rights, which showed that he lacked tolerance. He said the Prime Minister had talked of providing justice to the people without realizing that judges of superior courts had taken oath under the PCO and not under the constitution. — By arrangement with The Dawn, Karachi |
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Bush committed to fostering US-India ties, says Saran
Washington, November 20 Saran told reporters here yestserday that he made it clear to Rice that the arms sale could have repercussions on the ongoing India-Pakistan peace dialogue. Since Bush took office four years ago, US-India relations had seen significant transformation, with India viewed as a strategic partner, Saran said. India conveyed the concern that the sale of the arms to Pakistan could impact the “positive sentiments and the good will” built up between the two countries, he added. The arms package, amounting to some $ 1 billion, to India’s neighboring country is beginning to be an irritant in the relationship between the two countries. But Rice quelled India’s concerns, assuring that Bush had made a personal commitment to move relations between the two countries forward, Saran said. On the sale of F 16 aircraft to Pakistan that has sparked controversy, Saran said he was told that no decision had been taken. The USA was also appreciative of India’s withdrawal of troops from Kashmir, describing Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s decision as an “act of statesmanship,” said Saran. Asked about US sanctions on two Indian scientists, Saran said the sanctions are being reviewed. India earlier conveyed that there was no basis for US sanctions against the two scientists.
— UNI
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Palestinians reject Sharon’s peace “test”
Gaza, November 20 Sharon, proposing what he called a test for a new Palestinian leadership, said on Thursday it could show its desire for peace by ending anti-Israeli “incitement” even before the crackdown he has long demanded it launch against militants. Israeli analysts said Sharon’s comments were a departure from his long-standing condition that the Palestinian Authority must dismantle militant groups, as a U.S.-backed peace “road map” demands, before direct talks between the sides can resume. Palestinian Foreign Minister Nabil Shaath said Israel should not set preconditions for restarting a dialogue. “We are doing everything possible to be ready for our side of the commitment,” he said in Gaza. “We are not setting any preconditions except what is in the road map and I think that is what Mr. Sharon ought to do.” Sharon had said anti-Israeli propaganda in Palestinian schools and media was as dangerous as Palestinian weapons. “I don’t intend to waste time and my plan is to find any way, when the new Palestinian leadership is ready to open talks, to begin to advance our relations with the Palestinians,” Sharon told his right-wing Likud party on Thursday. He said in addition to dismantling militant groups and collecting weapons, the new Palestinian leadership could show its willingness to make peace by ending “constant poisonous incitement and propaganda” in its media and education. Asked about Sharon’s remarks on incitement, Palestine Liberation Organisation leader Mahmoud Abbas told reporters: “Maybe we have issues of this kind, but they (the Israelis) have them to a greater extent,” and suggested the two sides discuss the matter should negotiations resume. Shaath said the Palestinians planned to ask for international financial aid to boost their security forces. Kidnappings of security officials and gunfights between factions have marked a breakdown in security in Palestinian areas in recent months. Abbas vowed to crack down on militants to smooth the way for a Jan. 9 presidential election for a successor to Yasser Arafat, who died on Nov. 11. Shaath said the Palestinians would request foreign monitors for the election, as they did in a 1996 vote.
— Reuters
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Afghan sentenced to death for journalist killings
Kabul, November 20 Reza Khan (29) was also guilty of raping an Italian woman among the four journalists, and was sentenced to 15 years in prison on that charge, said National Security Court judge Abdul Baset Bakhtari. Khan was also convicted on a separate charge of killing his wife. “The crimes are proven and there is no doubt about it,” Bakhtari told the court. The four journalists, including Australian television cameraman Harry Burton and Afghan photographer Azizullah Haidari of Reuters, were killed on November 19, 2001, by gunmen at Tangi Abrishum, about 90 km (55 miles) east of Kabul. They were both 33. Spanish journalist Julio Fuentes of El Mundo and Italian journalist Maria Grazia Il Cutuli of Corriere della Sera were the other two victims. The journalists were stopped on the road from Pakistan while trying to reach Kabul just days after the defeated Taliban had withdrawn from the city. Speaking to journalists and observers in the judges’ chambers before the court hearing, Khan said he had shot “the Afghan” among the journalists but said he had been ordered to and would have been killed if he had disobeyed. In court before sentencing, he admitted killing his wife, but denied shooting any of the journalists and the charge of rape. “I was forced to go there and I am really sorry for this action against the foreigners and locals,” he told the court. “I am seeking mercy because I was forced to go there by Mohammad Agha,” he said, referring to a man he had identified as a local commander. Capital punishment in Afghanistan is carried out by hanging. The judge said Khan would be allowed to appeal against his sentence.
— Reuters |
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USA deports over 1.5 lakh
illegal aliens
Washington, November 20 The Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) had deported a record number of 1,57,281 criminals and other "illegal aliens" from the country last year, Homeland Assistant Secretary for the ICE, Michael J Garcia said. "Removing criminal aliens and other illegal aliens from the USA is critical to the integrity of our immigration system and important to the safety of our communities," he said in a statement. Under the new programme specifically aimed at criminal and fugitive aliens, nearly 53 per cent of those removed were "criminal aliens." Criminal aliens were foreign nationals who were eligible for removal based upon a criminal conviction in the USA he said. The ICE removed 82,802 criminal aliens last fiscal, which ended in September, an increase of 6.6 per cent over fiscal year 2003. Removal of non-criminal aliens increased by over 10 per cent in the same period, to 74,479, he said.
— PTI |
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Arafat’s medical file handed over to
Suha: Lawyer
Paris, November 20 “Mrs Suha Arafat received at 3.45 pm (2015 hours IST) today a copy of the medical file of her husband, President Yasser Arafat, which was released by the authorities at the Percy Military Hospital,” her lawyers said in a statement to AFP yesterday. “She has begun to study it,” said the statement by lawyers Philippe Plantade and Jean-Marie Burguburu. The French authorities had earlier indicated they would hand over the file to Arafat’s nephew, Nasser al-Qidwa, who was travelling to Paris yesterday to receive the information, which under French law could be released only to family. The lawyers’ statement said Suha Arafat had thanked “France, President Jacques Chirac and all the French authorities particularly the hematology and emergency hospital staff from the bottom of her heart for their exceptional support.” Qidwa, the Palestinian envoy to the United Nations, has been officially designated next-of-kin by French officials alongside Arafat’s widow Suha and their nine-year-old daughter. On his return to the Palestinian territories, Qidwa had been expected to hand over the medical file to a ministerial council set up to investigate causes of Arafat’s death.
— AFP
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Myanmar frees another political prisoner,
says source
Yangon, November 20 The release of Min Ko Naing, who had been in jail since March 1989, was a move Myanmar experts had been looking for as they sought to measure the significance of the purge of Prime Minister Khin Nyunt and his intelligence apparatus last month. The release could be a signal that the generals may be willing to move seriously on political reform, they said. But the former Burma’s most prominent political prisoner, democracy icon and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, remains under house arrest at her lakeside villa in Yangon despite calls from around the world for her freedom. And hopes of progress on reform have been dashed before. The source said Min Ko Naing — a pseudonym taken by Ko Paw Oo Tun when 1988 protests ended bloodily by the military with hundreds, possibly thousands, of deaths — was freed from a jail in Sittwe, 560 km west of Yangon yesterday. — Reuters
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UK looks
up to India for dentists
London, November 20 Health Secretary John Reid has said that about 1,000 dentists will be recruited by next October and many will come from outside the EU. With an increase in the siting of the exams, about 181 candiadtes have pased the International Qualifying Exam (IQE) since August. All dentists who qualify outside the EU have to pass the IQE before they are eligible to register with the General Dental Council. Health Minister Rosie Winterton said ‘’by increasing the number of exam sittings, the number of dentists able to work in the UK is increasing and we are targeting these dentists by informing them of the vacancies available in the NHS and their benefits.’’
— UNI
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Michael Jackson sued by antiques dealer
Los Angeles, November 20 According to the lawsuit, Jackson bought $378,000 in merchandise — including a $37,000 urn, $30,000 ‘’Louis XVI style’’ bust and clock and a gold-painted dancing girl — from the Mayfair Gallery, but has not paid the entire bill. A woman answering the phone at Mayfair Gallery, which specialises in 19th century European furniture, declined to comment on the breach of contract lawsuit, which was filed late on Thursday in Los Angeles Superior Court. ‘’We’ve heard rumblings about the lawsuit and what we will do is handle it in a good and business-like manner and take care of it as are all matters are in Michael’s business,’’ Jackson’s lawyer Brian Oxman said. — Reuters
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Lome, November 20 A huge crowd marched to President Gnassingbe Eyadema’s residence to celebrate an EU decision this week to restart some aid programmes, suspended since 1993 over concerns about the authoritarian rule of Africa’s longest-serving leader. — Reuters
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Prince William may join army
London, November 20 But the 22-year-old who is in the final months of a geography degree at St Andrews University in Scotland also said yesterday he wanted to carry on his dead mother’s charitable work on AIDS, poverty and helping the homeless. “The last thing I want to be is mollycoddled or wrapped up in cotton wool. Because if I was to join the army I would want to go where my men went and I would want to do what they did,” he said in a rare interview made available to all British media.
— Reuters
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In video: Shaukat
Aziz says talks with India on over Kashmir, nuclear programme to
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