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Nepal celebrates end of civil strife
Kathmandu, November 22 The Nepal Government today declared a public holiday to celebrate the signing of a landmark peace agreement between the seven parties and the Maoists, formally bringing to an end the 11-year -old armed conflict.	In video (56k)
People dance and chant slogans while celebrating the peace agreement between the government and Maoists in Kathmandu on Wednesday. Nepalis woke up on Wednesday to the promise of peace and an end to a decade of civil war, kidnappings, murders and fear, seven months after mass street protests overturned royal rule. — Reuters photo

ISKCON homes razed in Kazakhstan
New York, November 22
In a surprise move, 11 homes owned by members of ISK CON, a religious minority group in Kazakhstan, have been demolished by the local police, leaving the families homeless in freezing temperatures and winter snow, the organisation has alleged.

Protesters chant slogans at a strike rally in Seoul on Wednesday. About 200,000 workers from the umbrella Korean Confederation of Trade Unions, farmers and activists held a nationwide protest on Wednesday to demand legislation to protest non-unionised labour, a stop to South Korea-US talks on a bilateral free trade agreement and a reform of the occupational safety laws.	Patricia Gemayel, wife of assassinated Lebanese Industry Minister Pierre Gemayel, reacts as his coffin passes in a street in Bekfaya, Mount Lebanon, on Wednesday. Pierre Gemayel, an outspoken critic of Syria, was assassinated near Beirut, on Tuesday. — Reuters photos

China’s media ignore N-energy plan
with India
Beijing, November 22
Unlike the Indian media, the State-run Chinese media did not go overboard to highlight the possibility of India-China nuclear energy cooperation but devoted much space to showcase that Chinese President's ongoing visit as a "milestone" in upgrading strategic bilateral ties.

Pak gives transit facility to India
Islamabad, November 22
Pakistan has allowed India to use the Karachi port for trading with Afghanistan. According to Foreign Office spokesperson Tasneem Aslam, Afghanistan will also be able to export items to India through the Pakistani territory.

Pelosi announces forum on Iraq
Washington, November 22
Democrats who won control of the US House of Representatives largely because of voter discontent with Iraq said they would hold a forum next month to examine options in the unpopular war.

Indian longest serving prisoner
Dubai, November 22
An Indian carpenter, who has spent 21 years in jail on the charge of burning nine Pakistanis to death, is the longest serving prisoner in Dubai Central Jail here. Paul George has been put on the death row, a media report said.

Altman dies at 81 Los Angeles: "MASH" director Robert Altman, who revolutionised Hollywood filmmaking with a chaotic, irreverent style that critics hailed as "American Art Cinema," has died aged 81, his production company said on Tuesday. The director of dozens of films and TV dramas, Altman changed the vocabulary of American filmmaking starting with "MASH," a black comedy. — Reuters FAREWELL: Hollywood Director Robert Altman poses with his honorary Oscar in this file photo during the 78th Academy Awards at the Kodak Theatre, California. Altman, 81, died at a Los Angeles, California hospital, his Sandcastle 5 Productions Company said on Wednesday. The cause of the death was not disclosed. A five-time Academy Award nominee for best director, he finally won a lifetime achievement Oscar in 2006. — AFP

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Monarch butterflies reach Mexican sanctuary. (56k)

Nepal celebrates end of civil strife

Kathmandu, November 22
The Nepal Government today declared a public holiday to celebrate the signing of a landmark peace agreement between the seven parties and the Maoists, formally bringing to an end the 11-year-old armed conflict.

The government issued a circular that all government offices, schools and colleges will be closed to celebrate the historic peace accord that aims to put an end to the insurgency that claimed 15,000 lives.

Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala and Maoist chief Prachanda yesterday signed the Comprehensive Peace Agreement to restore permanent peace in the country and build a new Nepal by holding Constituent Assembly elections.

Under the agreement, the Maoists army will be confined to seven temporary barracks and its arms locked under UN supervision. The Nepalese army will also have to confine their soldiers to the barracks and lock up weapons.

The Nepalese Army will not use its weapons against the Maoists and the Maoists will have to stop extortion, abduction, intimidation, recruitment of new militants and issuing threats. Those who possess arms or use it will be punished under the prevailing law.

The government will supply food and other essentials to the combatants once they are in the cantonments. The Cabinet has approved Rs 10 crore for this purpose, official sources said. — PTI

ISKCON homes razed in Kazakhstan

New York, November 22
In a surprise move, 11 homes owned by members of ISK CON, a religious minority group in Kazakhstan, have been demolished by the local police, leaving the families homeless in freezing temperatures and winter snow, the organisation has alleged.

Incidentally, the bulldozing began even while a state special commission, appointed to investigate allegations of religious harassment against Hindus in Kazakhstan, had promised that no government action would be taken until the commission made its findings public.

The dispute began a few months ago when ISCKON members started developing a cultural centre on a piece of land owned by them on the outskirts of the capital Almaty.

The Governor of the region, however, wanted the court to evict the members from the site, according to the reports appearing on the ISKCON website.

At a recent meeting held in Almaty and chaired by A.M. Muhkashov, the deputy director of the Kazakh government Religion Committee, the ISKCON delegation was clearly told that Hindus did not have a place in Kazakhstan.

The demolition carried out on Tuesday has been labelled by many human rights organisations as land grabbing by the local government. The incident has already evoked outrage from the Hindu community across the world, according to an ISKCON press release.

"National Hindu organisations from the UK, United States, Canada, Australia, and other countries condemn this injustice, and call upon the Kazakhstan government to immediately stop the persecution of Hindus,” said Ramesh Kallidai, secretary-general of the Hindu Forum of Britain.

“I have no words to describe what I have seen,” said Ninel Fokina, head of the Almaty Helsinki Committee, an international human rights organisation, monitoring the police action. They have no right to put people out of their homes in winter.”

Kazakhstan, the largest republic in Central Asia with a population of over 15 million, comprises over 130 ethnic groups who practise 40 religions.

Ethnic Russians, who typically are traditionally members of the Russian Orthodox Church, constitute around a third of the population while ethnic Kazakhs, who are Sunni Muslims, make up half.

The society became a legally registered organisation under the laws of the Republic of Kazakhstan in 1992, according to ISKCON’s website.

According to the US State Department's 2005 International Religious Freedom report, the Kazakhstan government maintained a list of 73 minority religious groups, which are protected under the constitution. — IANS

China’s media ignore N-energy plan with India

Beijing, November 22
Unlike the Indian media, the State-run Chinese media did not go overboard to highlight the possibility of India-China nuclear energy cooperation but devoted much space to showcase that Chinese President's ongoing visit as a "milestone" in upgrading strategic bilateral ties. While President Hu Jintao tours India, the two countries have mapped out a new drive to promise a new era of peace and prosperity. The visit will steer the bilateral ties in a more vibrant and forward-looking direction, the 'China Daily' said in an editorial.

"The joint declaration and deals inked by the two countries yesterday in New Delhi map out their vision for the future, qualitatively upgrading bilateral relations to a strategic level," it said.

“President Hu's ongoing trip is the most important event on the calendar for the year as he is the first Chinese President visiting India in a decade,” the editorial noted, adding the visit marked a major milestone in bilateral relations, which had reached a certain level of maturity.

"Hu's meetings with a wide range of Indian dignitaries, including Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, will forge a greater understanding of respective positions on issues bilateral, regional and international," it said.

"Guided by the increasing trust they place in each other, the effort of China and India to lend a strategic dimension to the relationship assumes significance," the paper said.

The two countries are willing to explore ways to enhance mutual engagement on pressing issues while continuing to address contentious aspects such as the boundary dispute, the report said, completely ignoring the significance of the possibility of cooperation between India and China in the civilian nuclear energy field.

"China and India realise the importance of not letting contentious issues get in the way of taking forward the bilateral relationship. Early settlement of the border issue is a strategic goal the two countries have been working hard for. — PTI

Pak gives transit facility to India

Islamabad, November 22
Pakistan has allowed India to use the Karachi port for trading with Afghanistan.

According to Foreign Office spokesperson Tasneem Aslam, Afghanistan will also be able to export items to India through the Pakistani territory.

Visiting India last week for the Second Regional Economic Cooperation Conference on Afghanistan, Kabul's Foreign Minister Rangin Dafdar Spanta had said Pakistan would soon provide India with transit trade facilities to Afghanistan.

Analysts say because of the unstable India-Pakistan relations, Islamabad has allowed India the transit facility to Afghanistan only on a case-to-case basis, while ensuring that Indian exports to Afghanistan do not hit its commercial interests. Indian wheat was transported through Pakistan to Afghanistan during the Taliban regime.

India has for long demanded that Pakistan allow the use of the Wagah border in Punjab for trade, while Pakistan wants India to trade through the Karachi port. — IANS

Pelosi announces forum on Iraq

Washington, November 22
Democrats who won control of the US House of Representatives largely because of voter discontent with Iraq said they would hold a forum next month to examine options in the unpopular war.

“The war in Iraq is one of the most critical issues confronting our nation, and the American people have clearly called for a new direction,'' said Ms Nancy Pelosi, a California Democrat set to lead the House as its first woman Speaker when the new 110th Congress convenes in January.

Ms Pelosi said House Democrats would hold a forum on the Iraq war on December 5 with retired Major-Gen John Batiste, former US Ambassador to the United Nations Richard Holbrooke and former US National Security Adviser Zbigniew Brezinski.

''We know that 'stay the course' is not working, has not made our country safer, has not honoured the commitment to our troops and has not brought stability to the region,'' she said in a statement.

In winning the November 7 congressional elections, the Democrats vowed to push for a withdrawal of US troops from Iraq beginning within months. President George W. Bush and his fellow Republicans in Congress have opposed timetables.

The bipartisan Iraq Study Group formed in March to advise lawmakers and the President on a strategy in conducting the war is expected to report next month. — Reuters

Indian longest serving prisoner

Dubai, November 22
An Indian carpenter, who has spent 21 years in jail on the charge of burning nine Pakistanis to death, is the longest serving prisoner in Dubai Central Jail here.

Paul George has been put on the death row, a media report said.

About 21 years ago, a drunken George set afire shanty houses in Fareej Al Marar here in which nine Pakistanis -- two mothers and their seven children aged between two and 14 were killed. — PTI