Sunday, October 18, 1998
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W O R L D | Sunday, October 18, 1998 |
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India for fund to help sanctions-hit UNITED NATIONS, Oct 17 — India has called for the establishment of a permanent mechanism, including a fund, to provide automatic assistance to the third party states affected by the sanctions imposed by the Security Council. Laden ‘looking for hideout in
Kashmir’ |
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‘Pak
cannot speak for Kashmiris’ |
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Fatima
Bi receives UN award Now
babies on Internet Khaleda
elected BNP chief Imran's
marriage in trouble NATO
planes fly over Kosovo Typhoon
Zeb hits Japan, two missing
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India for fund to help sanctions-hit UNITED NATIONS, Oct 17 (PTI) — India has called for the establishment of a permanent mechanism, including a fund, to provide automatic assistance to the third party states affected by the sanctions imposed by the Security Council. Addressing a United Nations committee, Indian delegate Dinanath Mishra rejected the suggestions for passing on the responsibility to international financial institutions. “Sanctions are not imposed, nor are the consequential adverse economic effects on third parties, caused by the international institutions or bilateral aid programmes,” he said. The responsibility for dealing with adverse effects of the sanctions, he told the delegates, rested with the authority which had the competence to impose sanctions and could not be passed on to other bodies. Under the charter, the sanctions could only be imposed by the Security Council. Article 50 of the Charter provides for paying compensation to the third states affected by the embargo but so far it has not been done. Mr Mishra stressed the need to operationalise the article and to establish a permanent mechanism, including a fund, to provide relief to third countries. Referring to the Secretary-General’s report on the issue, he noted that it did not address the question of finding a permanent solution to the problem of assistance to such states but dwelt more on the role of international financial institutions. Mr Mishra said the sanctions should be used as a last resort after all other options under the Charter had been exhausted and had proved ineffective. “Sanctions should be
implemented strictly in accordance with the Charter and
should take into account humanitarian needs such as food
and medicines,” he added. |
Laden ‘looking for hideout in Kashmir’ MOSCOW, Oct 17 (IANS) — Saudi millionaire Osama bin Laden, suspected to be masterminding terrorist attacks from his base in Afghanistan, is planning to shift his hideout to Kashmir, according to a leading Russian strategic affairs analyst. “Bin Laden has chosen Kashmir as his next shelter since he is sure that this base in Kashmir cannot be an easy target for American attack like his base in Afghanistan was,” said Rashid Karimov, head of the Asia-Pacific Department of the Institute for Strategic Studies in Moscow. Bin Laden is looking for a secure base for fear of another American missile attack on his terrorist training camps in Afghanistan, he said. “More than that, the Taliban leaders, emboldened by their recent military successes in Afghanistan, are most likely contemplating expansion of their horizon beyond their present frontiers,” he said. Bin Laden is suspected to be hand in glove with the Muslim extremists of the Taliban which has taken control of most of Afghanistan. “And there is
sufficient reason to believe that Kashmir would be their
next target,” Karimov told India Abroad News Service
in an interview. He drew attention to a recent Taliban
declaration for “launching a holy war for the
victory of Islam in India and Central Asia.” |
‘Pak cannot speak for Kashmiris’ LONDON, Oct 17 (PTI) — Kashmir Watch, a prominent Kashmiri group in the United Kingdom, has rejected Pakistan’s claim to speak on behalf of Kashmiris, saying by such actions the country has once more “stabbed the people of the state in the back”. “By saying that Pakistan will represent the people of Kashmir during the talks between India and Pakistan, Foreign Secretary Shamshad Ahmed has belittled their struggle and created an impression as if people of Kashmir are no more than a dumb herd of cattle,” chairman of the organisation Lord Eric Avebury said in a statement here. Strongly condemning Pakistan for its hawkish attitude towards 13 million “politically conscious and vibrant” people of Kashmir, executive director of the Kashmir Watch Siraj Shah said, “Pakistan or its puppets have no mandate from the people of Kashmir to represent them in any negotiations concerning the future political status of Kashmir”. Another prominent Kashmiri leader Hashim Qureshi also rejected Ahmed’s claim saying “since Pakistan was in illegal occupation of a part of Jammu and Kashmir, Shamshad Ahmed had unveiled Islamabad’s true designs of denying the right of the people of Jammu and Kashmir to have their own voice.” “Pakistan cannot
become our spokesman because we are witness to its rulers
treating people of PoK, Gilgit and Baltistan as slaves
under total repression,” Qureshi who is chairman of
the Jammu and Kashmir Democratic Liberation Party said. |
Quake-prone Himalayas may kill thousands KATHMANDU, Oct 17 (IPS) — Asha Devi, a 90-year-old resident of Parsauni village near the border town of Birgunj, Nepal, clearly remembers the terror of 1934. That was the year when the “big one” struck Nepal. The earthquake destroyed a large part of central Nepal and the bordering Indian state of Bihar to the south. “The houses shook violently”, recalls Asha Devi remembering every little detail. “There were no deaths in my village, but we heard that Kathmandu had been totally destroyed. The ground shook so hard that people were knocked off their feet.” Recent re-interpretation of data by seismologists show that the “Bihar-Nepal earthquake”, as the quake is technically known, measured 8.4 on the Richter scale and that its epicentre was located near Bhojpur in Nepal’s eastern hills. Houses and structures tumbled and became rubble. Thousands died in both Nepal and northern India and many uncounted thousands were left wounded and homeless. Yet 64 years after that event, the dangers posed by earthquakes seem to have been forgotten by today’s generation. Specialists who study and analyse tectonic plate shifts and have poured over every detail of the 1934 earthquake warn the Himalayas are prone to such killer earthquakes and there are sure to be more in the future. “Studies show that in the 19th century alone, there were four major earthquakes in the Himalayas comparable in magnitude to the 1934 quake”, says Amod Dixit, a geologist and general secretary of the National Society for Earthquake Technology-Nepal (NSET). “So far this century, only one has been recorded. But one never knows when the other big one will hit”. Experts are particularly worried that if a big one were to strike now or in the near future, the damage would be many times more than that caused by the 1934 earthquake. “There’s been a population boom in the intervening years”, points out Mahesh Nakarmi, an engineer and project manager of the Kathmandu Valley Earthquake Risk Management Project (KVERMP). “Haphazard urbanisation has led to the sprouting of dense and unsafe concrete jungles which could come crashing down in a 7-8 magnitude quake”, says Nakarmi. The Kathmandu valley’s population today has grown to 1.2 million from a mere 3,00,000 in 1934 when the quake killed 1.5 per cent of the population. That would be a staggering 18,000 people today, and hospital and emergency services will be unable to cope with the scale of the disaster. “Practically none of the buildings in Kathmandu and across Nepal, except for the International Convention Centre, are designed to minimise earthquake risks”, says Prof Li Tianchi, a geologist and academic who works at the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development. Geologists have for long known that the high Himalayas were formed 60 to 70 million years ago when the Indian continental plate separated from the ancient Gondwanaland land mass, drifted northwards and collided with Asia. The “subducting” of the hard rock layers of the Indian plate into the relatively softer sedimentary formations of the Tibetan plateau is still continuing at the rate of 2 cm to 4 cm annually. The result is that new fault lines are being created beneath the Himalayas, while the old faults like the ones that triggered the 1934 earthquake are still active. Three major fault lines beneath the Himalayas have been identified. Earthquakes happen when
movement occurs along the subduction plane. In simple
terms, tension builds up along the fault line as tectonic
plates slide past each other and there is a sudden
release of energy as the two layers snap. |
Fatima Bi receives UN award UNITED NATIONS, Oct 17 (PTI) — Fatima Bi, who became the first woman village council leader in her Muslim village in Andhra Pradesh, was among five women who received UN awards last night at a gala ceremony for battling poverty in their community and countries. UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan presented the awards, sponsored by the UN Development Programme, on the occasion of International Day for the Eradication of Poverty yesterday. Women from the Dominican
Republic, France, Jordan and Uganda were the other four
who received the UN awards at the ceremony hosted by
actor Danny Glover. |
Now babies on Internet MADRID, Oct 17 (DPA) — Do you feel guilty or worried when leaving your children in the care of strangers before going to work in the morning? A solution may be at hand. The cybernursery schools are coming. In a pioneering project, four Spanish nursery schools have created an Internet website, Babynet, on which parents can keep a constant eye on their children — smiles, tears and all. “We were constantly getting phone calls from working parents who worried about how their kids were doing”, says Gerjo Perez of Casa Menuda, near Madrid, one of the nurseries taking part in the project. Many Spanish children start nursery school at nine months, and parents fret over whether their kids are eating, having their naps, getting their nappies changed, and other problems. At Marti Nursery School in Barcelona, the phone rang so often that two employees were needed just to answer it. “We had the idea of a website, which we expect will calm parents down”, Perez said. The planners believe that the project, with a budget of $ 29,000 partly funded by the European Union, will soon find emulators in other European countries. The website will allow working parents to log into the nursery school from their office, or from any computer with an Internet connection. Hidden cameras will transmit pictures of the kids. “The images will change every five seconds”, Perez said. “It’s almost like watching your kids live on television”. Grandparents living in foreign countries can watch their grandchildren grow on the Internet — as can anyone who knows the secret password to access the website. “Worrying parents transmit their anxiety to the kids”, Perez says. “The Internet will make it easier for us to work with the kids, and it can also help parents participate in their children’s education”. The danger is that children could start acting for their parents whom they know to be watching. Parents could also start excessively interfering with the work of nursery school teachers, or believing that virtual time makes up for real time spent with children. To avert such dangers, the nursery schools are going to keep the Internet window provided to parents strictly under control. In a first phase, the
children will go online for only an hour each day. The
parents will be able to observe them on the playground
where they usually are at their most relaxed. |
Khaleda elected BNP chief DHAKA, Oct 17 (AFP) — Former Prime Minister Khaleda Zia has been re-elected as chief of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) for two years, party officials said today . “Her nomination papers were found to be valid after scrutiny and she is the only candidate,” said Abdus Salam Talukder, the party’s election commissioner. He said the party was expected to formally announce her re-election on Monday. The last election was held in 1993 with party policy makers deciding to continue her leadership till the current election. Khaleda Zia, who took over the helm of the party after the assassination of BNP founder and her husband Zia-ur-Rahman, was the only candidate for the post, he said. Zia-ur-Rahman, a former
Army chief, was killed in the 1981 abortive military
coup. |
Imran's marriage in trouble LONDON, Oct 17 (AP) — The three-year marriage of former Pakistan cricket captain Imran Khan and billionaire’s daughter Jemima Goldsmith is in trouble, Britain’s tabloid newspapers reported today. Cultural difference, a large age gap and Khan’s determination to forge a political career has driven the couple apart, reports said. Ms Jemima (24), reportedly four months’ pregnant with the couple’s second child, remained in London this weekend. The couple live with Mr Khan’s family in Lahore, but Jemima, daughter of the late Anglo-French entrepreneur Jimmy Goldsmith, regularly makes extended visits to her family in London. Newspapers said Mr Khan was upset that his wife, who has converted into Islam, was attending too many frivolous parties in London, not seemly behaviour for a Muslim woman. She reportedly feels restricted by the Muslim way of life and neglected as her husband becomes increasingly involved in his movement for Justice Party. The couple, who married in
Paris in May, 1995, have a two-year-old son, Sulaiman. |
NATO planes fly over Kosovo PRISTINA, (Yugoslavia) Oct
17 (AP) — Just hours after NATO gave Yugoslavia 10
more days to fulfil a peace pledge, the alliance sent
surveillance planes over Kosovo today to check on the
status of promised Yugoslav withdrawals. Yugoslavia
consented to the flights this week as part of the package
of agreements worked out to end the turmoil in the
war-torn Serbian province. "U-2S are indeed
flying,’’ said a US official who spoke on
condition of anonymity. They’re definitely up in the
air, and we’re looking at the ground,’’ as
part of the air surveillance accord signed with
Yugoslavia on Thursday. NATO and US officials have
declined to say where the flights originate from. |
Typhoon Zeb hits Japan, two missing TOKYO, Oct 17 (AFP) — Typhoon Zeb continued its destructive path today sweeping two persons out to the sea as it struck southern Japan after leaving more than 100 dead in the Philippines and Taiwan, rescue officials said. The large storm system, packing winds of 90 km per hour, hit Makurazaki on the southern tip of Japan’s major southern island of Kyushu today. Zeb, weakened to medium strength from the 300 km an hour gusts which first hit the northern Philippines on Wednesday, was moving northeast at 40 km per hour. It is expected to run across Kyushu and western Japan, the meteorological agency said. In the southern island of Okinawa, two men were missing after being washed away by high waves, the police said. The meteorological agency urged the people all over Japan to take precautions against the heavy rain and strong winds. Between today and early tomorrow, Zeb is expected to whip up seven-metre waves and drop up to 70 mm of rain an hour on Kyushu. In Taiwan, the
government’s rescue coordination centre today put
the number of dead from Typhoon Zeb at 18 with 13
missing, but the China Times said 23 had been killed. |
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| Pak steps to guard N-secrets ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan Government has cautioned its nuclear and defence departments against possible hacking of country’s nuclear and defence secrets by enemy countries. The bi-lingual (Urdu and English) daily of London, “The Nation”, carried a report, quoting responsible sources, that the Government had told the Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission and the Department of Defence Production to wipe out data stored in the memories of their computers before giving them for servicing, and if necessary, also remove their hard discs. In a circular, the government has said that intelligence agents of enemy countries (they are not identified) work through the companies which supply computer systems and services and steal secret information. — UNI ‘Titanic’ star to
wed Lawyer scales
Everest 2 die in plane
crash US honour for Kohl Editor dead War crimes
tribunal |
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