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Anti-desecration protests in Pak, Afghanistan
China not to impose sanctions on N. Koreans
Bonded labour in vogue in
India: ILO
Car bomb claims 12 lives in Baghdad
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US colonel punished for dog use at Abu Ghraib prison
Maoists offer support to parties against King
Marry or leave job!
British call centre worker dies of hepatitis
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Anti-desecration protests in Pak, Afghanistan
Kabul, May 12 Several hundred students shouting “death to America” held a peaceful protest outside Kabul University but in other areas of the country demonstrations turned violent, a day after four persons were killed and 70 wounded in riots in Jalalabad. Protesters attacked police posts and government offices in southwest Kabul and an ammunition store was torched. Newsweek said in a recent edition that investigators probing abuses at the US military prison in Guantanamo Bay had found that interrogators ‘’had placed Korans on toilets and in at least one case flushed a holy book down the toilet’’. Today, angry villagers confronted the police in a district southwest of Jalalabad. They fired into the air but there were no casualties. The USA has sought to defuse the anger by emphasising its own outrage and promising that the allegation would be investigated. The US and other foreign troops have not been involved in policing the protests, leaving that to the Afghan authorities. PESHAWAR: More than 200 supporters of a radical Islamic group chanted anti-US slogans at a rally in northwestern Pakistan in protest against the reported desecration. The demonstration passed off peacefully. A coalition of religious groups has scheduled nationwide protests for tomorrow. The Pakistan government has said it was “deeply dismayed” over the report.
— Reuters |
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China not to impose sanctions on N. Koreans
Beijing, May 12 Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao said normal diplomatic relations between China and North Korea should not be linked to nuclear issues and that politics and economics should be kept separate. ``We stand for resolving the issue through dialogue. We are not in favour of exerting pressure or imposing sanctions,’’ Liu said at a briefing at the Foreign Ministry. ``We believe such measures are not necessarily effective.’’ The Bush administration had stepped up pressure on China in recent weeks to use whatever influence it has over the isolated Stalinist state to resume the negotiations. The issue became more urgent after spy satellite photos reportedly showed possible evidence that North Korea was preparing for its first nuclear weapons test, including digging a large hole at a potential test site. China is also concerned that tough sanctions could lead to an economic meltdown in North Korea, prompting tens of thousands of desperate refugees to surge across the border into China. An unnamed South Korean official was quoted in that country’s press Wednesday complaining that US leaks about preparations for a test near Kilju were causing unnecessary concern. In the English-language Korea Times, he said ,``We detected some unusual activity like the construction of villas, tunneling and ... trucks. But we haven’t found moves so far that could be linked with a nuclear test.’’ On Tuesday, Pyongyang accused the United States of ``making a fuss ... saying that our republic may conduct an underground nuclear test in June,’’ but it stopped short of denying the US reports. — By arrangement with the LA Times-Washington Post |
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Bonded labour in vogue in
India: ILO
London, May 12 “Bonded labour remains a tragic reality for many of the poorest women, men and children in some South Asian countries. Trafficking for forced commercial sexual exploitation is growing,” a global report under the follow-up to the ILO Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work, 2005, has said. According to the report, older manifestations of forced labour are transmuting into newer ones. Bonded labour, although still widespread in its traditional stronghold of agriculture, is increasingly found in other sectors such as domestic service, brick-kilns, rice-mills, mining and quarrying and carpet-weaving. “Forms of coerced prostitution also prevail, as in the chukri system in Bangladesh and India, in which the young prostitute generally works without pay for one year or even longer, in order to repay a supposed debt to the brothel owner for food, clothes, make-up and living expenses,” the report stated. In India, the government’s “centrally-sponsored scheme” provides financial or in-kind grants to released bonded labourers and their family members, the report noted, adding over 2,85,000 persons had benefited to date. Almost 5,000 prosecutions had been recorded so far under the Bonded Labour System (Abolition) Act of 1976.
— PTI |
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Car bomb claims 12 lives in Baghdad
Baghdad, May 12 Medics at a local hospital said they received the bodies of three dead along with eight wounded, three of them women. At least eight cars and a bus were caught in the blast at 10.55 am, while a number of storefronts were blown in and stalls operated by street vendors were sent flying. Hysterical residents wailed as medics and the police extracted charred bodies from the bus. “There was no sign of a police presence or US patrols at the time of the explosion,” said 32-year-old mechanic Anwar Ibrahim, who witnessed the blast but escaped unhurt. Apartments had their windows blown in and roofs damaged.
— ASP |
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US colonel punished for dog use at Abu Ghraib prison
Washington, May 12 No decision had yet been made on whether to relieve Colonel Thomas Pappas of command of the 205th Military Intelligence Brigade despite the verdict, an official said yesterday, speaking on condition of anonymity. Colonel Pappas was responsible for the military intelligence personnel who conducted interrogations at the Iraqi prison during late 2003 and early 2004 when American guards were photographed abusing and sexually humiliating prisoners. Major-General Bennie Williams on Tuesday found Colonel Pappas guilty of two counts of dereliction of duty at the end of a hearing at Kaiserslautern, Germany, in which the colonel presented evidence in his defence, the officials said.
— AFP |
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Maoists offer support to parties against King
Kathmandu, May 12 “Our party has decided to support as much as possible the movement taken by the political parties which we consider as a positive move,” the president of the CPN-Maoists Prachanda said in a statement. The seven political parties in Nepal have proposed reinstatement of Parliament, setting up an interim government, drafting a new constitution and ending the Communist rebellion through talks with the rebels. Terming as positive the acceptance of the constituent assembly elections, one of their major demands, by the seven political parties to resolve the political crisis, Prachanda offered to back the agitation by the parties against the royal proclamation. The Maoists have made the offer through a statement e-mailed to various newspapers.
— PTI |
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Marry or leave job!
Satkhira (Bangladesh), May 12 Jamiluzzaman, Monirul Islam, Dipak Kumar Shaha and Ashish Kumar Poddar were warned by the managing committee of Balli Mujibur Rahman High School in Sadar Upazila in January
to get married in three months or face termination of their employment, informed sources said. Meanwhile, the teachers have asked for some more time owing to “family problems”. With the deadline ending on May 1, they have asked for an extension by another month. The school authorities took this step after it got worried that “the four could beguile girl
students and bring a bad name to the institute”. Headmaster Abdur Razzak, who admitted the fact, on Wednesday said their petition would be placed in the next meeting of the managing committee.
— UNB |
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British call centre worker dies of hepatitis
London, May 12 Originally, it was believed that Lucy Wilson, 23, had caught the infection after stepping on glass at a nightclub in Mumbai. However, at an inquest this week, medical experts said the virus could not have been picked through the laceration on foot. Wilson was taken to Nevill Hall Hospital in Abergavenny on December 4 last year and then transferred to a specialist liver unit at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham 24 hours later. She was put on a waiting list for a liver transplant, but died three days later. Hepatitis E was not found to be the cause of death until some time after a post-mortem examination.
— UNI |
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