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Pervez meets Hurriyat
leaders
‘Throwaway economy
won’t work for India’ |
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Blair
says he will stay on London, January 6 A defiant Tony Blair vowed to stay on as Prime Minister and see out the bulk of his third term before handing over the baton to Chancellor Gordon Brown, prior to the next election which could be as far away as 2010. Mecca tragedy toll 34 3 quake survivors die
in tent fire 5 Italian hostages
released in Yemen Sharon has another surgery
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Pervez meets Hurriyat leaders
Islamabad, January 6 During an unscheduled meeting with a three-member Hurriyat delegation here late last night, General Musharraf said though India and Pakistan had moved forward on confidence building measures a “substantive progress on conflict resolution was required.” Reiterating moral, diplomatic and political support to the “Kashmir cause”, he told the delegation, comprising Hurriyat chairman Mirwaiz Umer Farooq and senior leaders Abdul Ghani Bhat and Bilal Ghani Lone, that wishes of Kashmiris would have to be considered for the final solution to the issue. In their first interaction with the Pakistani leadership this year, Hurriyat leaders discussed self-governance and demilitarisation of Jammu and Kashmir, and proposals they will present to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in the next rounds of talks. The delegation also held a meeting with Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz who called for a peaceful resolution of the Kashmir dispute through flexibility, commitment and magnanimity to achieve a durable peace in South Asia. Later talking to reporters, Mirwaiz Farooq said the proposals of establishment of a “United States of Kashmir”, self-governance and demilitarisation of Jammu and Kashmir were discussed at the meeting, which lasted for about two hours. He claimed that the leadership in Kashmir fully supported the proposals for the demilitarisation and self-governance. “These proposals should be discussed and taken forward formally, beginning with the next round of India-Pakistan dialogue at the Foreign Secretaries-level,” he added “Let there be a genuine discussion on these ideas,” he said. However, he said a step-by-step approach would have to be adopted for substantive and result-oriented progress on the long-standing Kashmir issue.
— UNI |
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‘Throwaway economy won’t work for India’
Washington, January 6 “Our global civilisation today is on an economic path that is environmentally unsustainable, a path that is leading us toward economic decline and eventual collapse”, Lester Brown said in his new book “Plan B 2.0: Rescuing a Planet Under Stress and a Civilisation in Trouble”. “China is helping us see that the days of the old economy are numbered”. The leading environmentalist, who is the founder and President of the Washington-based Earth Policy Institute, argues that with China eclipsing the U.S.A. in the consumption of most basic resources, people are slowly becoming convinced of the need for an economic restructuring. “The Western economic model—the fossil fuel based, auto centred, throwaway economy—is not going to work for China.. If it does not work for China, it will not work for India which by 2031 is projected to have a population even larger than China’s”, Brown said. Brown’s Plan B stresses that time has come for a new economy and a new world and will have three components: a restructuring of the global economy with a view to sustaining civilisation; an all out effort to eradicate poverty so that the developing world will participate in the process; and a restoration of natural systems. The author for instance argues that one or more of the new processes is already under way as seen in the wind farms of Western Europe; solar rooftops of Japan; the fast growing hybrid cars in the U.S.A. or the bicycle friendly streets of Amsterdam. And Brown pushes the argument that among the new sources of energy, wind is emerging as a major source. And at a time when there is a lot of talk of civilian nuclear power—say for instance the civilian nuclear power agreement between the US and India— Brown said that electricity from nuclear power plants is costly. Brown stressed that combining social goals and earth restoration components into a Plan B budget means an additional annual expenditure of some $ 161 billion. “If we fail to build a new economy before decline sets in, it will not be because of lack of fiscal resources, but rather because of obsolete priorities”, Brown said pointing to the annual world military spending to the tune of $ 975 billion with the USA alone accounting for half of this. — PTI
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London, January 6 “I’m not going anywhere. I’m here and I’m going to see the whole programme through,” Blair told ‘The Sun,’ a leading tabloid last night, adding that he would not flinch in the face of Labour rebels. Just back from a holiday in Egypt, Blair said: “I’m absolutely happy that Gordon will be my successor. He needs the confidence of knowing he will succeed me and that’s fair enough.” The tabloid stated that Blair’s declaration that he will carry on will be a blow to the Chancellor. But Brown will be able to take comfort from the Premier’s public endorsement of him as successor. Blair is working on a handover strategy giving Brown the best chance of winning a fourth Labour election victory in 2009 and wants him to cash on a “honeymoon period” which would come if he took over close to the polling date. “I feel good about our agenda. If you’ve won three elections then you’re obviously what the people want,” he said. Blair has been under pressure in recent months following his first parliamentary defeat since coming to power in 1997, when MPs voted against a proposal to detain terrorist suspects for a maximum 90 days without charge. — PTI
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Mecca tragedy toll 34
Jeddah, January 6 The multi-storey hotel collapsed yesterday in the latest deadly tragedy to mark the haj or annual pilgrimage to Mecca, the holiest place in Islam. “As of 2:00 am (0430 IST) we had 34 dead persons and 64 wounded,” the head of the pilgrimage civil defence force said in Jeddah. “We may find some more people under the rubble, but we are looking to finish our work today and reopen the road,” said Major-General Alwani Jeddawi, who has been leading the rescue effort. Earthmovers and heavy lifting equipment had worked through the night as rescuers hunted for survivors. The Interior Ministry spokesman, General Mansul al-Turki, said yesterday that the rubble of the hostel in a crowded street near the Grand Mosque was being removed “very carefully” in the hope of finding entombed survivors. The spokesman gave no breakdown of the nationalities of the dead, who included at least eight women. But survivors said most pilgrims staying in the hostel came from India, Libya, Pakistan or the United Arab Emirates. The English-language Arab News said today that the Saudi authorities confirmed that three of the dead were Emiratis. Emergency teams armed with sound-detecting gear have been working frantically since yesterday to try to locate survivors amid the rubble of the Luluat Al-Kheir (Pearl of Grace) hostel, which an official charged was overcrowded.
— AFP |
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3 quake survivors die
in tent fire
Muzaffarabad, January 6 The fire in a village, northwest of the city of Muzaffarabad on Thursday night also injured two other children and an elderly man. "The tent caught fire because of a candle they left burning," said Muzaffarabad deputy police chief Tahir Qureshi. More than two million people have been forced to camp out in tents or crude shelters patched together from their ruined homes since the quake killed more than 73,000 people. Harsh winter weather that began last weekend has raised fears of more tent fires as people try to keep themselves warm. Several days of heavy snow and rain also set off landslides across the mountains. Seven people were killed and 18 wounded, nine of them seriously, when a landslide hit a bus in the Kohistan region in the north on Thursday
night. — Reuters |
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5 Italian hostages released in Yemen
Yemen, January 6 “They were handed over to mediating tribal chiefs at dawn on Friday,” the source who was involved in negotiations said. The Yemeni authorities had sent in more troops yesterday to the lawless area of the country as captors stood firm on demands that they will only be released in exchange for eight of their members held in jail. But Italy had demanded that the Yemeni government not use force to free them. The kidnapping of the Italians occurred a day after a German family of five, including a retired top diplomat, was freed. It was the fourth abduction of foreigners within a space of three months.
— AFP |
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Sharon has another surgery Jerusalem, January 6 The scan also indicated a change in 77-year-old Sharon’s blood pressure, said Hadassah hospital Director Shlomo Mor-Yosef. “During the CT scan, a slight expansion in the brain chambers was discovered, as well as an area of bleeding,” he was quoted as saying by the media. “With the combination of the CT scan and with the changes in the parameters that we are monitoring it was decided to transfer the Prime Minister to the operating theatre in order to deal with these two issues: to drain the bleeding and to reduce the pressure in his skull.” Doctors had earlier said that the Prime Minister, who is fighting for his life after suffering a severe stroke and cerebral hemorrhage, was likely to remain sedated and on a respirator at least until Sunday. “The logical scenario is that we won’t even try to wake him up before Sunday,” said Shmuel Shapira, Deputy Director of Hadassah. “This sedation has very important significance. The goal of the sedation is to lower the oxygen needs of the brain and to allow the brain ... to rest. So certainly until Sunday, and it’s possible beyond that, he will be sedated.”
— PTI
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