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PM pitches for East Asian Community
Firefighters battle UK fuel blaze
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Lebanon blast kills prominent editor
Special voting begins in Iraq
Canada’s Liberals maintain lead: poll
Dubai opens film fest with suicide bombers’ movie
Crammed accommodation threatens expatriates’ health
Kuala Lumpur Diary
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PM pitches for East Asian Community
Kuala Lumpur, December 12 Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, while delivering the keynote address at the Special Leaders Dialogue, said like the North American Free Trade Area and the expanding European Union, a pan-Asian Free Trade Area would be a dynamic association of the countries of this region. Dr Manmohan Singh said the India-ASEAN FTA could become the first step in the process. The limited FTA, he pointed out, was a beginning but India and ASEAN must ensure that it lead to explosive growth in trade and investment. The Prime Minister said the objective basis for the economies of the region to come together existed while the subjective desire to create an East Asian Community, bringing together ASEAN, China, Japan, South Korea and also Australia and New Zealand, was manifest. “This will not be easy, and it cannot be done in a day. There will be sceptics. But for believers, it is eminently possible. I am convinced that this is the only way to move forward.” He said the essence of the idea was to build up closer linkages among India and the countries of the ASEAN which can be done through identifying and drawing upon each other’s strengths. “The key to the future is the development of synergies. In the 1960s, synergies between scientists in India and scientists at the International Rice Research in the Philippines contributed to the Green Revolution in India. This resulted in filling India’s granaries with foodgrains. We have both benefited from each other.” The Prime Minister stated that the best part of India-ASEAN renewed engagement was that both sides now recognised that they had something to offer to one another. He pointed out that India had developed expertise in high technology areas such information technology, bio-technology, space and pharmaceuticals. The ASEAN region, on the other hand, had an abundance of natural resources and significant technological skills. Dr Manmohan Singh said the process of engagement in the Asian region had truly taken off and he took India-ASEAN
relationship very seriously. He assured the ASEAN leaders that India was committed to bringing down its tariffs to levels prevalent in ASEAN countries, to dismantle unwarranted barriers and to expand global capital flows. “We must walk this road together, so that enterprises in our countries find it a beneficial process, not a hurtful one. There may be losers, and there will certainly be gainers, but on the whole, we will obtain a win-win outcome,” he said. |
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Firefighters battle UK fuel blaze
Hemel Hempstead (England), December 12 A huge plume of thick, black smoke rose higher than 10,000 feet as it drifted south-west. But contrary to initial fears, there was no indication that it was either highly toxic or coming back down to earth. The blasts, heard up to 100 miles (160 km) away, had initially raised fears of a possible repeat of the deadly wave of suicide bombings in London in July. Fireflighters spent Sunday night discussing with environmental authorities how to tackle the blaze with fire-quenching foam without polluting local water supplies. “This is the largest fire of this kind we in the UK or Europe have dealt with,” Hertfordshire’s Chief Fire Officer Roy Wilsher told reporters this morning. “We are in uncharted territory. But by noon the mood was cautiously optimistic. “We have made very good progress. Fires on 10 of the 20 tanks have been put out, but the next hour is critical,” said a brigade spokesman. Meanwhile, British newspapers cleared their front pages on Monday for dozens of pictures of the fire under headlines such as “Vision of Doomsday”, “Cloud of Doom” and “Black Sunday”. The depot supplies petrol and fuel to a large part of south-east England, including Luton and Heathrow airports.
— Reuters |
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Lebanon blast kills prominent editor
Beirut, December 12 LBC and Future TV said Tueni was killed in the bombing that killed two other people in an industrial suburb of Beirut. A switchboard operator at An-Nahar, the leading newspaper, which Tueni headed said "He's all right," when contacted by The Associated Press. His wife at the scene of the explosion was in tears. Asked by a reporter whether her husband was hurt, she refused to answer and shook her head as she was led away by police officers. LBC TV and Future TV station, which is owned by the Hariri family, said a car bomb had been
detonated. — AP |
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Special voting begins in Iraq
Baghdad, December 12 Three days before the rest of the country goes to the polls in the watershed elections, Iraqis being treated in hospitals, those being held in prisons and members of the security forces were casting their ballots. Draconian security measures, similar to those enforced during two earlier elections this year, have been imposed to keep attacks at bay and minimise bloodshed during the main Thursday election. Airports and borders will shut from Wednesday until Friday or Saturday, curfews extended and a ban on carrying weapons imposed for even those with permits. A five-day public holiday will also be in effect. “We are hoping for a calm day as during the referendum,” said Interior Minister Bayan Jabr Solagh.
— AFP |
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Canada’s Liberals maintain lead: poll
Toronto, December 12 The Strategic Counsel poll, conducted for The Globe and Mail and CTV News, shows that the Liberals have the support of 35 per cent of voters across the country, while the rival Conservatives sit at 30 per cent. The New Democratic Party (NDP) has 15 per cent, while the Bloc Quebecois, which only campaigns in French-speaking Quebec, has 14 per cent support.
— Reuters |
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Dubai opens film fest with suicide bombers’ movie
Dubai, December 12 Indian producer Yash Chopra, American stars Morgan Freeman and Laurence Fishburne, Greek-French cult director Costa-Gavras and Egyptian superstar actor Adel Imam yesterday walked up the red carpet of the event meant to bridge East-West differences. The star-studded Gala night screened “Paradise Now”, a movie by Palestinian director Hany Abu-Assad which won awards at the Berlin International Film Festival 2005. The film shows the gripping events of what may be the last 24 hours in the lives of two young men chosen to carry out an anti-Israeli suicide bombing. The second annual Dubai festival features 98 films from 46 countries, and will honour Freeman, Chopra and Adel Imam. The festival, meant to establish a crossroads where Hollywood meets Bollywood, will also feature films from India. The films include the world premiere of director Dhruv Dhawan’s documentary “From Dusk” about Sri Lankan survivors of the devastating 2004 tsunami and Chopra’s “Veer Zaara”.
— AFP |
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Crammed accommodation threatens expatriates’ health
Dubai, December 12 Ten or more low-income expatriates are forced to share a room that had been previously occupied by two persons, Arrayah, an Arabic daily, reported. Most bachelors are forced to live in accommodation that have become ''tins of sardines'' where they sleep on bunk-beds and face frequent water shortages. People, who were surveyed, said, ''There are frequent fights over watching television, smoking, use of toilets and kitchens.'' The problems get aggravated when a person falls ill with a communicable disease or develops some skin disease, one respondent said. The accommodation problem has affected the morale of workers as some of them are considering leaving Qatar for good, as living conditions have become difficult, the daily
said. — UNI |
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Kuala Lumpur Diary
BOLLYWOOD sells everywhere and it won't be unjustified to say that Bollywood is the best goodwill ambassador India has ever had or can ever have. This was proven yet again here today, though with a twist in the tale.
A Malaysian woman asked Prime Minister Manmohan Singh during the Question-and-Answer session at the Special Leaders' Dialogue why the governments of India and Malaysia could not pool their efforts together to cooperate and complement with each other. She said India's best known strength was in its technical/technological superiority and its vast reservoir of scientific and technical skills which Malaysia wanted from India. Then she said her company had made earnest attempts in the past for hiring the services of an Indian woman software developer whose software could change the face of the Malaysian markets, but she had been denied visa. Quickly realising that the Indian PM could not do anything if her own government did not give visa to an Indian, she urged Dr Manmohan Singh to take up the matter with his Malaysian counterpart and get visa to her Indian woman friend. Then she exclaimed that the woman had been denied visa even though she had the financial backing of Shah Rukh Khan. Gowda-Murthy spat
A Malaysian businessman nearly bowled the Indian Prime Minister over with a frank question: Why can't politicians and businessmen co-exist in India? The questioner put his question giving the specific example of a recent spat between former Prime Minister HD Deve Gowda and Infosys Chairman Narayan Murthy over the upgradation of Bangalore airport and said the incident proved rift between businessmen and politicians in India. The Prime Minister smiled and gave a long-winded answer, the long and short of which was that such politicians who wanted to obstruct business processes were increasingly becoming a minority rather than being a dominant force. Most qualified Head of
Govt
Manmohan Singh is second to none when it comes to humility. Before his keynote address at the Special Leaders' Dialogue here today, ASEAN's former Secretary-General Ajit Singh, gave a colourful introduction of the Prime Minister and India. He said as a result of a decision taken by a Catholic Christian woman, Manmohan Singh, a Sikh, was sworn in last year by a Muslim President as Prime Minister of a country of more than 80 per cent Hindus. Then Ajit Singh read out Dr Manmohan Singh's academic accomplishments and exclaimed: "He is the world's most qualified Head of Government." When Dr Manmohan Singh was invited to speak, he referred to Ajit Singh's remarks and merely said: "It is a custom with us to speak good of your friends. And Ajit Singh is an old friend." |
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