 |
|
USA undermining rights: Amnesty
Hurriyat leaders to get warm welcome in Pakistan
India signs N-pact with European body
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Dhruv soars high in Israeli sky
|
|
USA undermining rights: Amnesty
London, May 26 From Afghanistan to Zimbabwe the picture is
bleak. Governments are increasingly rolling back the rule of law, taking their cue from the US-led war on terror, the London-based human rights group said yesterday. “The USA as the unrivalled political, military and economic hyper-power sets the tone for governmental behaviour worldwide,” Secretary General Irene Khan said in the foreword to Amnesty International’s 2005 annual report. “When the most powerful country in the world thumbs its nose at the rule of law and human rights, it grants a licence to others to commit abuse with impunity,” she added. The report cited the pictures last year of abuse of detainees at Iraq’s US-run Abu Ghraib prison, which it said were never adequately investigated, and the detention without trial of “enemy combatants” at the US naval base in Guantanamo
Bay, Cuba. “The detention facility at Guantanamo Bay has become the gulag of our times, entrenching the practice of arbitrary and indefinite detention in violation of international law,” Khan said. Accused at a news conference of being too harsh on the USA, Khan replied that the facts spoke for themselves. She also noted Washington’s attempts to circumvent its own ban on the use of torture. Khan also condemned the United Nations Commission on Human Rights for failing to stand up for those supposedly in its care.
— Reuters |
|
Decries culture of impunity in Punjab
The Amnesty report says that perpetrators of human rights violations continued to
enjoy impunity in many cases across India between January and December 2004.
In Punjab, the majority of police officers responsible for serious human rights violations during the period of militancy in the mid-1990s continued to evade justice despite the recommendation of several judicial inquiries and commissions. The report says, ``In response to 2,097 reported cases of human rights violations, the National Human Rights Commission had ordered the state of Punjab to provide compensation in 109 cases concerning people who were in police custody prior to their death. While taking note of the fulfilment of the UPA government’s pledge to repeal the Prevention of Terrorism Act (POTA), the report has said that concerns have been expressed about amendments to the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act that includes provisions similar to those in POTA. On Gujarat, the Amnesty report has noted that the Supreme Court had directed a review of more than 2,000 complaints relating to the 2002 communal violence that the police had closed and the 200 cases that had ended in acquittals. The Amnesty has said that India still lacks a comprehensive legislation to address domestic violence. It said that the government has failed to submit overdue periodic report to United Nations Committee on Elimination of Discrimination Against Women.
— TNS |
|
Hurriyat leaders to get warm welcome in Pakistan
Islamabad, May 26 The Government of Pakistan has invited the APHC leadership to visit occupied Kashmir and Pakistan by the Muzaffarabad-Srinagar bus on June 2 to avail the opportunity of interaction with the AJK as well as Pakistani leadership and discuss possible means of solving the Kashmir dispute. The Cabinet, which held its meeting with Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz in the chair, decided that the government would accord a warm welcome to the APHC leaders when they set foot on the federal capital via Jammu and Kashmir where they will be received by the state leaders. Briefing newsmen after the Cabinet meeting, Information Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed said that “in our view” Syed Ali Gilani, who heads a radical faction of the APHC, had a major role in the political struggle of the Kashmiri people and it would have been more suitable had he also joined the touring party. The Minister said that he had predicted sometime back and “I still stand by my statement” that two to three years were very important insofar as the solution of the Palestine and Kashmir problems was concerned. “In my opinion, President Bush has a major role to play in both issues.” |
|
India signs N-pact with European body
Geneva, May 26 The Statement of Intent was signed in the presence of visiting Indian President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam Wednesday by Anil Kakodkar, Chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission (AEC), and Robert Aymar, Director of the European Organisation for Nuclear Research, the place where the World Wide Web was created. The signing ceremony took place after Kalam was taken on a tour of the research centre, including to parts of a 27-km -long tunnel some 110 metres underground where work on a Large Hadron Collider (LHC), one of the most advanced particle accelerators in the world, is currently under way. Sixty-two Indian scientists and a large number of technical staff have been working on this project ever since the country was given “observer” status two years ago by CERN, a collaborative venture of 20 European nations. Among other nations with “observer” status at CERN are the US, Russia and Japan. ”Indian inputs into the ongoing LHC, which will become operational in 2007, include superconducting magnets, sophisticated electronics and help in building grid computing,” said Kakodkar, who arrived here Wednesday morning. Explaining the significance of the collaboration, Kakodkar said it was not possible for a single country to undertake the kind of expensive and extremely high-end experiments done in the area of nuclear physics at CERN. He said that once the new protocol was signed, Indian scientists would be able to collaborate with CERN in building an upgraded version of the LHC. —
IANS |
|
China for solving border issue on equality basis
Beijing, May 26 This was stated by Chief of Staff of Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) Liang Guanglie during his meeting with India’s National Security Adviser M.K. Narayanan, who is also India’s special representative on the Sino-India boundary issue, in New Delhi yesterday, the official Xinhua news agency reported. Liang said the PLA was also ready for confidence building measures with the Indian Army in the military areas along the Line of Actual Control to ensure lasting peace and tranquillity along the border. The PLA chief, who also called on Defence Minister Pranab Mukherjee yesterday, was told by Mr Mukherjee that friendly atmosphere built by the two sides was helpful to the solution of border problems left over by history, Xinhua said. Mr Mukherjee said Liang’s visit was another important high-level contact between the two countries after the official visit of Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao to India in April.
— PTI |
|
|
Sunil Dutt’s death shocks Indians in US
New York, May 26 Mr Mickey Nivelli, who had once worked with Dutt in his Ajanta Arts before emigrating from India, said he had been shattered by the news of the demise of his mentor in the film industry. Bollywood Group of Companies Chairman Kamal Dandona, who annually organises several film awards and fashion shows in the United States some of which were attended by the veteran film-maker and star, said 'I knew him for the past 40 years. He has worked tirelessly and selflessly for India and the Congress party. He has always focused on the poor and the downtrodden. When I was heading the Congress party in America, he was always supportive and was a source of inspiration to me and all our members'. Mr Raaj Grover, who had also worked with Dutt, also expressed shock and said the veteran Parliamentarian was a humanist par excellence who was always ready to help his fellow beings.
— UNI |
|
Ismail Merchant to be buried in Mumbai
London, May 26 “His body will be taken to Mumbai, his birth place, in a couple of days for burial,” Merchant’s brother-in-law Waheed Chauhan said. The 68-year-old veteran producer-director died at the Queen Elizabeth hospital here yesterday of ulcer burst in the abdomen. Merchant had been reportedly suffering from stomach ailments for the past few days. He had recently undergone a surgery for abdominal ulcers. Born in Bombay on December 25, 1936, Merchant lived and worked for most of his life in the West, completing his education at New York University where he earned his Masters Degree in Business Administration. Merchant in partnership with an American producer James Ivory had made blockbusters like “A Room With a View,” and “Howards End”. Merchant and Ivory made some 40 films together, including “A Room With a View,” “Howards End”, both based on P.M. Forster’s novel, “Heat and Dust” starring Shashi Kapoor and “The Remains of the Day”. “The Mystic Masseur”, based on the novel by Nobel laureate V.S. Naipaul, was Merchant’s latest work as Director.
— PTI |
|
Tipu’s treasure fetches £ 1.2 million at auction
London, May 26 The chief attraction, a gold-inlaid sporting gun belonging to Tipu Sultan and decorated with Tipu’s signature, the roaring tiger, was sold for £ 100,000 to an anonymous telephone bidder yesterday. The beautifully engraved gun was presented to Lord Cornwallis after the defeat of Tipu at Seringapatnam in 1799. The sale came amid strong protests by many people in India, as well as non-resident Indians. They said the treasures were “looted” by the conquering British at the Battle of Seringapatnam in 1799, a defining moment in Britain’s colonial sweep of India, and ought to have been handed back to either the government of India or Tipu’s descendants who live in Kolkata. All items fetched well over their estimated price with hectic bidding on the floor and from telephone bidders. Liquor baron and Rajya Sabha MP Vijay Mallya had announced before the sale that he was interested in buying objects but it wasn’t known if he was among the buyers. The tremendous interest in the auction was evident from the very first item to go under the hammer, an officer’s sword and gilt-edged sabre with a tiger on the hilt, which fetched £ 13,000, well over the estimated price of £ 4,000. The artefacts included swords, porcelain tiger toys, bows and arrows, armbands, guns, tents and even a tiger paw taken from the legs of Tipu’s throne. There was much demand for a pearl model of a tiger mauling an Englishman, Tipu’s favourite image, which fetched £ 26,000 — again far over the estimate of £ 15,000. The sale was preceded by strong protests by NRIs, who registered their outrage by email and on NRI websites. Websites such as Sulekha encouraged its members to write their protests to Sotheby’s.
— IANS |
|
|
Dhruv soars high in Israeli sky
Ben-Gurion Airport (Lod, Israel), May 26 Israel is leasing the helicopter from the HAL, whose experts had been camping here for weeks to train their counterparts in the use of the ALH.
— PTI
|
| HOME PAGE | |
Punjab | Haryana | Jammu & Kashmir |
Himachal Pradesh | Regional Briefs |
Nation | Opinions | | Business | Sports | World | Mailbag | Chandigarh | Ludhiana | Delhi | | Calendar | Weather | Archive | Subscribe | Suggestion | E-mail | |
