W O R L D

New govt unlikely to meet deadline
Kathmandu, May 8 
With the formation of a national unity government appearing unlikely by tomorrow’s deadline, three ethnic Indian Madhesi parties, with a combined strength of 83 seats in parliament, hold the key to breaking the political logjam in Nepal.

Maoist supporters try to break the police barricade and enter President Ram Baran Yadav’s office in Kathmandu on Friday. — PTI

Demand to deactivate Pak’s N-warheads
The top Republican on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and author of legislation that established a programme to provide U.S. expertise to help safeguard and dismantle stockpiles of nuclear, chemical and biological weapons wants to expand this programme to include Pakistan.

Zuma swearing-in today
Ansari in South Africa to represent India
Herd boy to head of the state is a long journey. On Saturday, Jacob Zuma, who was elected on April 22, will complete this extraordinary voyage when he is sworn in as the President of the Republic of South Africa.

More trouble for Ruby Dhalla
Toronto, May 8
Even as the embattled Indian-origin Sikh woman MP Ruby Dhalla on Thursday demanded a parliamentary probe into charges by two nannies that they were mistreated and underpaid at her home, another caretaker complained she too was underpaid by the family.

Resume of Errors, survey reveals
London, May 8
“I love cooking dogs”, “I was responsible for dissatisfied customers”, “My job is to pervert unauthorised people from coming onto site”, “I have excellent poof-reading skills”... Fret not. These are only bloomers from job applicants, a new survey of CV blunders has revealed.

New govt unlikely to meet deadline

Kathmandu, May 8
With the formation of a national unity government appearing unlikely by tomorrow’s deadline, three ethnic Indian Madhesi parties, with a combined strength of 83 seats in parliament, hold the key to breaking the political logjam in Nepal.

Major political parties were engaged in parleys and strategy sessions today but finding the way out of the deadlock before the deadline set by President Ram Baran Yadav seemed unrealistic. The political crisis was sparked by Maoist premier Prachanda’s resignation after Yadav blocked his move to sack army chief General Rukmangad Katawal.

The Maoists were hesitating to support a government led by former ally CPN-UML and were not ready to join the new government under any other party’s leadership. The Nepali Congress, the second largest party in parliament, has said it will back a CPN-UML candidate for the post of prime minister.

“Our Madhesi front will support any party that is prepared to form a national government,” said Rajendra Mahato, president of Sadbhavana Party. When asked what will be the Madhesi parties’ position if efforts to form a national unity government fails, he said, “we will sit together, discuss the matter and try to find out our common stance.”

Meanwhile, the Nepali Congress on Friday stepped up its call for a fresh headcount of Maoist guerrilla fighters after a videotape showed Maoist chief and caretaker premier Pushpa Kamal Dahal Prachanda saying he had inflated their number nearly fivefold.

Sushil Koirala, one of the top leaders of the party, asked for a fresh verification of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA), saying the UN that had conducted the count had been proved to be erroneous as well as biased.

“The UN Mission in Nepal made a grave blunder,” Koirala said at an interaction hosted by a media organisation in the capital Friday, adding, “With the Prachanda tape exposing the blunder, a fresh count has to be undertaken to find what the reality is.”

On Tuesday, a day after Prachanda resigned as Prime Minister, a videotape aired by private television channels showed him claiming to his PLA combatants that though their number was “just a handful” — between 7-8,000 — the party had produced nearly 35,000 people during the UNMIN verification, passing them off as guerrilla fighters. — PTI, IANS

Demand to deactivate Pak’s N-warheads
Ashish Kumar Sen writes from Washington

The top Republican on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and author of legislation that established a programme to provide US expertise to help safeguard and dismantle stockpiles of nuclear, chemical and biological weapons wants to expand this programme to include Pakistan.

The Nunn-Lugar Act, established with former Georgia Democratic Sen. Sam Nunn in 1991, has provided US funding and expertise to assist in the safeguarding and dismantling of stockpiles of nuclear, chemical and biological weapons. Nunn-Lugar has deactivated over 7,500 nuclear warheads; eliminated more than 2,000 missiles; destroyed over 1,100 missile launchers; eliminated 31 nuclear ballistic missile submarines; secured 433 nuclear warhead shipments; secured 24 nuclear weapons storage sites; and built and equipped 18 biological monitoring stations.

"Perhaps most importantly, Ukraine, Kazakhstan and Belarus are nuclear weapons-free as a result of cooperative efforts under the Nunn-Lugar program. Those countries were the third, fourth and eighth largest nuclear weapons powers in the world," Lugar noted. Nunn-Lugar was initially restricted to the former Soviet Union.

As unease builds in Washington over the safety of Pakistan's nuclear arsenal, Sen. Richard Lugar, Indiana Republican, noted he has spoken on "numerous occasions" about the need to utilise the so-called Nunn-Lugar Programme to engage Pakistan. "The U.S. must vigorously seek to expand our cooperation with Pakistan to address the threats posed by weapons of mass destruction," he said.

Mr. Lugar's statement comes at a time when Pakistan's President Asif Ali Zardari is making the rounds in Washington seeking to assure both President Barack Obama's administration as well as lawmakers on Capitol Hill about the viability of his administration and its determination to take on the Taliban. Mr. Lugar urged Mr. Obama to use this opportunity to "gain clarification on the status and security of Pakistan’s nuclear weapons, chemical weapons precursors, and pathogen samples."

Besides nuclear weapons security, Mr. Lugar contends there is an opportunity for collaboration in the area of infectious diseases and pathogens. "In recent weeks the world has been gripped by the spread of the H1N1 virus," he said, referring to the swine flu virus. "Imagine if the spread were intentional, not natural, and the virus’s lethality had been artificially enhanced. Pakistan has many dangerous diseases and pathogens under its control. The Nunn-Lugar program can help secure the pathogen strains to ensure they do not fall into the wrong hands. Equally important, the U.S. can assist Pakistan in establishing a system designed to detect, characterize and respond to outbreaks of infectious diseases."

Some analysts, however, believe Pakistan's nuclear arsenal will remain secure because of the Pakistani army's strategic goals. "Unless the Pakistani Army, the overseer of the nuclear-weapons programme, starts to fragment, the fears of nuclear weapons ending up with the Taliban are greatly exaggerated," writes Sumit Ganguly, director of research of the Centre on American and Global Security at Indiana University, Bloomington, in an online column in Newsweek. "Today the military regards nuclear weapons as the ultimate deterrent against its perceived archenemy, India. Consequently, it will not allow this vital weapons capability to slip into the hands of unpredictable, if occasional, allies, such as the Taliban," Prof. Ganguly added.

Zuma swearing-in today
Ansari in South Africa to represent India
Ashis Ray writes from Pretoria

Herd boy to head of the state is a long journey. On Saturday, Jacob Zuma, who was elected on April 22, will complete this extraordinary voyage when he is sworn in as the President of the Republic of South Africa.

The Vice-President of India, Hamid Ansari, arrived here on Friday to represent the Indian government on the occasion.

According to media, a list of 30 odd overseas leaders, mostly Africans, will include Libyan President Muammar Gaddafi and Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe, whose presence is resented in some circles in this country because of the havoc he had caused in his previously flourishing country. Zuma and Mugabe belong to rival tribes and there’s speculation that the latter may not enjoy the support extended to him by previous South African President Thebo Mbeki from Zuma.

King Mswati III of Swaziland is also likely to lend his presence much to the annoyance of the South African Communist Party as the Swazi ruler is looked upon as autocrat opposed to democracy.

Omar al-Bashir of Sudan is, however, not coming. If he does, he is liable to be arrested and tried for “crimes against humanity” at the International Court of Justice in The Hague.

But the ruling African National Congress is pleased that Mbeki will come. The professorial Mbeki’s tenure was cut short after the Zuma-controlled ANC ousted him.

All former South African presidents have been invited to the inauguration, including white rulers from the apartheid era. But curiosity centres around whether iconic Nelson Mandela, the first president of democratic South Africa, will join the occasion. Regardless of his frail health, Mandela extended his endorsement of Zuma’s candidature at two public rallies during the election campaign.

More trouble for Ruby Dhalla

Toronto, May 8
Even as the embattled Indian-origin Sikh woman MP Ruby Dhalla on Thursday demanded a parliamentary probe into charges by two nannies that they were mistreated and underpaid at her home, another caretaker complained she too was underpaid by the family.

35-year-old Dhalla has been the MP for the opposition Liberal Party from the Brampton-Springdale constituency on the outskirts of Toronto since 2004.

Two Filipino nannies have publicly alleged that they were mistreated and underpaid by Dhalla’s family.

They say their passports were taken away and they were forced to do non-nanny chores like washing family cars and cleaning shoes. It has also come out that they were hired illegally as Dhalla had not sought permission from immigration authorities.

But there was more trouble as one more foreign worker said she too was mistreated when she was hired as a housekeeper by the Dhalla family.

Alleging hard working conditions, she said she was forced to work long hours and paid under the table.

The woman told the local Toronto Star that Dhalla’s mother, Tavinder, drove her to wash all the floors on her hands and knees, forcing her to quit within days.

Dhalla, who has already quit her job as ‘critic’ (shadow minister) for the opposition Liberal Party and virtually gone into hiding, asked the parliamentary ethics panel to investigate the allegations by the nannies.

However, the ruling Conservative Party slammed her for seeking an inquiry by the Ethics Commissioner. — IANS

Resume of Errors, survey reveals

London, May 8
“I love cooking dogs”, “I was responsible for dissatisfied customers”, “My job is to pervert unauthorised people from coming onto site”, “I have excellent poof-reading skills”... Fret not. These are only bloomers from job applicants, a new survey of CV blunders has revealed.

According to the survey, 94 per cent of job hunters risked missing out on vacancies through poor spelling, grammar or presentation on their CVs.

What’s hilarious is that in some cases, applicants’ attempts to impress potential employers failed through the odd missed word, with phrases such as: “I was responsible for dissatisfied customers.” For others, the omission of a single letter consigned their CV to the dustbin: “I am a pubic relations officer.” And sparing use of comma led to seemingly embarrassing disclosures of equal note: “My interests include cooking dogs.” From a sample of 450 CVs, researchers found that 81 per cent were laden with spelling and grammatical errors, while nearly half were poorly laid out. A mere six per cent were error-free, the survey has found. — PTI