Sunday, April 25, 1999
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W O R L D | Sunday, April 25, 1999 |
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NATO attacks Serbian town BELGRADE, April 24 — NATO launched a fierce blitz overnight against the Serbian town of Nis, South of Belgrade, hitting several civilian buildings and leaving one person injured. Ershad's Jatiya Party splits DHAKA, April 24 — The Opposition Jatiya Party of Bangladesh today formally split with one third of party MPs "expelling" former President H.M. Ershad from the party for indulging in "destructive acts." |
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Grenade attack on bus hurts 15 KARACHI, April 24 — The driver of a bus carrying members of the minority Shiite community was being hailed as a hero here today after catching a hand grenade lobbed at his packed vehicle and throwing it away, the police said.
Japanese
men resent fathering Disqualification
case of Benazir adjourned Teenaged
killers “were not from poor families” US
professor wins $ 5,00,000 prize PAEC
ex-chief Munir Khan dead |
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NATO attacks Serbian town BELGRADE, April 24 (AFP)— NATO launched a fierce blitz overnight against the Serbian town of NIS, about 220 km South of Belgrade, hitting several civilian buildings and leaving one person injured, Serbian sources said. A series of powerful explosions shook the town early today shortly after midnight (2200 GMT), Tanjug said. It said NATO planes had dropped about 20 bombs on the North West district of NIS, the site of an industrial complex. One person was injured during the half-hour attack, during which several civilian buildings were damaged, Tanjug said. Water and electricity supplies to the North-West part of the town were cut off, the private Studio B Television Channel reported. In Pristina, the Kosovo provincial capital, five explosions rang out yesterday between 1600 and 1630 GMT. The blasts came from the southern part of the town, an AFP correspondent said. NATO warplanes also hit targets in Gracanica, Laplje Sela and Veternik, sources close to the police said. Tanjug meanwhile said 15 NATO bombs or missiles landed on Pristina and the surrounding area overnight. Quoting witnesses, Tanjug said one NATO plane had been hit by Yugoslav anti-aircraft fire over Kosovo on last night. “the plane hit, left a trail of smoke in its wake as it flew off towards Albania,” the witnesses said. NATO officials immediately denied that any alliance plane had been damaged. At Novi Sad in Northern Serbia, Tanjug said NATO had launched a fresh attack on the refinery there early today at 03:15 P.M. (0115 GMT). Eight missiles crashed into the complex triggering a fire, Tanjug said, adding that it had no reports to casualties. Elsewhere, a fuel depot was hit at 02:45 a.m. Today (0045 GMT) near Kraljevo, 150 km South of Belgrade, according to Tanjug. The blast damaged the road between Kraljevoand Raska, a town 70 km to the South. A bridge 15 km South West of Belgrade and several electricity installations were also targeted overnight. In Belgrade, sirens sounded at 10:15 p.m. Friday (2015 GMT) but there was no attack on the capital. The all clear went at 06:13 (0413 GMT). WASHINGTON: In a clear indication to readily intervene in international conflicts, the NATO nations have condemned trans-border terrorism and pledged to press ahead with arms control objectives at NATO’s 50th anniversary celebrations overshadowed by the Kosovo crisis. “We pledge to improve our defence capabilities to fulfil the full range of the alliance’s 21st century missions. We will continue to build confidence and security through arms control, disarmament and non-proliferation measures,” said a declaration issued yesterday by the leaders of 19 member nations, which began NATO’s three-day celebrations. They said “we reiterate our condemnation of terrorism and our determination to protect ourselves against this scourge.” The declaration stressed the importance of working together with allies and partners, including Russia and Ukraine, to erase the divisions imposed by the cold war and to help build a Europe “whole and free”. Blair said: “when oppression produces massive flows of refugees, which unsettle neighbouring countries. Then they can properly be described as “threats to international peace and security”., when regimes are based on minority rule, as they were in apartheid South Africa, they lose legitimacy.” “Globalisation is not just an economic but also a political and security phenomenon. We are all internationalist now whether we like it or not. We cannot turn our backs on conflicts and violation of human rights within other countries,” he said. The British Premier
added “if we want to right every wrong that we see
in the modern world, then we would do little else than
intervene in the affairs of other countries...” |
Ershad's Jatiya Party splits DHAKA, April 24 (PTI) — The Opposition Jatiya Party (JP) of Bangladesh today formally split with one third of party MPs "expelling" former President H.M. Ershad from the party for indulging in "destructive acts" and replacing him with former premier Mizanur Rahman Chowdhury at the chairman’s post. A parallel party council session here also elected Mr Anwar Hussain Manju, Communication Minister in the Awami league-led government of "national consensus", as JP secretary-general and decided to form a 21-member party presidium and 101-member central working committee shortly. Eleven of the 33 party MPs who attended the two-day rebel "special council" ratified the expulsion of Mr Ershad from the JP for his "anti-party activities and indulging in destructive acts like politics of hartal (general strike)", dissident MP Golam Farooq Ovi told PTI. The dissidents accused Mr Ershad of forging an "opportunistic alliance" with the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) of former Premier Khaleda Zia with the "sole aim to unseat the Awami League government". After his election as JP chairman, Mr Chowdhury said the new party would not tolerate "anti-people acts of the government, but would protest in a democratic way without destroying the image or the economy of the country". Mr Ershad, however, told
PTI, "the parallel party council will not make any
dent in my party. "Rather it will help my party. The
betrayers have gone and they have failed to take a single
central leader with them." |
Grenade attack on bus hurts 15 KARACHI, April 24 (AFP) — The driver of a bus carrying members of the minority Shiite community was being hailed as a hero here today after catching a hand grenade lobbed at his packed vehicle and throwing it away, the police said. The quick reactions of the driver helped avert a major disaster, they said as grenade attacks in violence-plagued Karachi yesterday wounded at least 15 persons, including 12 Afghan teenagers. The grenade was thrown at the bus from a passing motor cycle as 40 persons, mostly women, were boarding after attending a religious congregation at a Shiite mosque in the city’s busy M.A.Jinnah Road area. Three persons received minor injuries when the grenade exploded after the driver threw it away, the police said. Two hours later a grenade was thrown into a mosque-cum-Islamic seminary in the central buffer zone area. Twelve Afghan teenagers were injured when the device exploded where around 100 students being educated in Islamic studies were sleeping on a veranda, leaving the injured soaked in blood. AP: Unidentified men hurled a hand grenade at a Sunni Muslim mosque in the southern port city of Karachi today, wounding at least 14 devotees, the police said. Two of the wounded were said to be in critical condition. No group has claimed responsibility for the attack however, it is believed to have been carried out by militant rival Shiite Muslims. While most of the violence had been restricted to the eastern Punjab province, Karachi, the capital of southern Sindh province occasionally feels the brunt of the sectarian strife. Earlier today also in Karachi several men, wearing masks, tossed a powerful firecracker into the middle of a group of Shiite Muslims who had gathered in eastern Karachi to mourn the death 1,400 years ago of the grandson of Islam’s Prophet Mohammed. Police and paramilitary rangers in bullet-proof vehicles and in jeeps with machine guns mounted on the rear stepped up their patrols in Karachi and in particular in the troubled neighbourhoods following the two incidents. Additional security has been ordered for most cities and towns throughout Pakistan to try to prevent violence during the Islamic holy month of Muharram, which began last week. During this month devout Shiite Muslims mourn their prophet’s grandson Imam Hussain. The mourning peaks on the ninth of Muharram, which is Monday and on Tuesday, the 10th of Muharram. On these two days Shiite Muslims in large numbers march through the streets beating themselves in memory of Hussain’s death. Extremists Sunni Muslims are opposed to the self-beatings by Shiite Muslims and consider it against Islam. While most people in Pakistan are Sunni Muslims they have no quarrel with their Shiite brethren. However, the extremists from both sects are the ones who clash. The worst-hit area has
been the eastern Punjab province, where more than 100
persons have been killed in religious violence during the
last one year. |
Pak’s power-hungry MPs ISLAMABAD, April 24 (PTI) — In a major embarrassment to the Nawaz Sharif government several of his cabinet ministers and party legislators were found involved in power thefts prompting the Opposition to demand their immediate prosecution. A list of 49 lawmakers caught during an Army-backed operation across the country against power theft recently, was submitted in the Upper House (Senate), yesterday by Water and Power Minister Gohar Ayub Khan. To the astonishment of the Treasury benches, the majority of legislators in the list belonged to Mr Sharif’s Pakistan Muslim League (PML), including two Cabinet ministers and Deputy Speaker of the Lower House (National Assembly). In a swift reaction, the main Opposition Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) demanded prosecution of the 49 sitting and former lawmakers whom the government has put on the list of power pilferers. "They have brought shame to the country," the PPP of Premier Benazir Bhutto said in a statement today calling for their immediate dismissal. The pilferers have been asked to pay outstanding dues and fines amounting to more than $ 280,000 Mr Gohar Ayub Khan told the Senate. The Water and Power Development Authority (WAPDA) has already filed cases against Interior Minister Choudhury Shujaat Hussain, former Minister for Population Welfare Abida Hussain and National Assembly Deputy Speaker Choudhury Jaffar Iqbal Khan informed the House. Ms Abida Hussain has
already resigned from the Cabinet and filed an appeal in
a court challenging the allegations against her. |
Japanese men resent fathering TOKYO, April 24 (AP) — A baby smiles in the arms of a doting dad. A man who does not help in child-rearing can’t be called a father”, the voice on the TV public announcement gently warns. The Japanese Government campaign that began last month had the best of intentions: encouraging men to lend their wives a helping hand with children at a time when more and more women are holding jobs outside the home. But the campaign proved a trifle too much for male-dominated Japan, where a government report released yesterday found that husbands spend far less time cooking, cleaning or taking care of the children than do their American counterparts. Exactly how controversial fatherhood can get in Japan couldn’t have had a more blatant reminder than the outburst over Tokyo’s fatherhood campaign. The posters and TV segment set off a public wrangle, drawing protests from fuming men, and the topic is being taken up on TV talk shows as well as in a special absent dads” series in the Major Asahi newspaper. Of course there’s outrage”, said Kiichi Inoue, a lawmaker who opposes the campaign. A parent-child relationship is not determined by child care”. Mr Inoue says women are generally better at taking care of children. He couldn’t help out around the house when his kids were young because he wasn’t home until midnight, he added. I’d have died”, he said in an interview at his parliamentary office. According to yesterday’s report, however, Japanese women work longer hours than do their husbands. The women are burdened with work at home in addition to the office. Totalling nearly 10 hours of work a day. One hour more than their husbands. Japanese men spend a fifth of the time their wives spend on child care and less than a 10th of that on housework. In contrast, American men did almost as much of the shopping and about half of the child-care and other housework, said the white paper” on sexual equality by the Prime Minister’s office. It was a battle to get my husband to help out with the kids”, says nurse Chieko Ota. Japanese men tend to think only about their jobs and aren’t very interested in taking care of their children”. The fatherhood campaign features Japan’s most famous father the dancer-husband of singer Namie Amuro, who goes by the single name Sam. They had a baby boy last year. The Health Ministry, which sponsored the 500 million yen ($ 4.2 million) campaign, received letters and telephone calls of protest, demanding that the government stop meddling in private affairs. Many men feel they are very busy. They have to work late and can’t help with child care even if they wanted to”, said Health Ministry official Masaki Matsuoka. Even Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi felt compelled to defend the campaign in Parliament as deepening his awareness about men’s participation in childrearing”. Hiroyuki Narusawa of the Tokyo advertising company I and S, which designed the campaign, said he received quite a bit of negative feedback from his co-workers. But others thanked us
for coming out and saying it”, Mr Narusawa said. |
Disqualification case of Benazir adjourned ISLAMABAD, April 24 (Reuters) — Pakistan’s top election official today adjourned proceedings to disqualify convicted Opposition Leader Benazir Bhutto and her jailed husband from Parliament. Chief Election Commissioner Abdul Quadeer Chaudhry fixed the hearing for May 17 at the request of Ms Bhutto’s lawyers who said they wanted to appeal against last week’s conviction of Ms Bhutto and her husband Asif Ali Zardari on corruption charges. The couple was found guilty of receiving kickbacks while hiring Swiss-based Societe Generale De Surveillance (SGS), the world’s leading cargo inspection group, to root out tax fraud. The couple and SGS deny the charge. Ms Bhutto and Zardari were convicted on April 15 and sentenced to five years in jail, disqualified from Parliament and fined $ 8.6 million. The Pakistani Parliament on Tuesday formally began proceedings to unseat Ms Bhutto from the 217-seat National Assembly (Lower House), and Zardari from the 87-seat Senate (Upper House). Ms Bhutto is abroad and
can be arrested on return unless the Supreme Court stays
the implementation of the sentence. |
Teenaged killers “were not from poor families” WASHINGTON, April 24 (PTI) — Teenagers Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, who took their lives after killing 13 students in the deadliest shooting spree in US school history, came from prosperous families and nothing in their lives indicated that they would turn killers one day, friends and neighbours said. Investigators now
theorise that Harris (18) and Klebold (17) had probably
intended to blow up the Columbine High School during the
shooting in Colorado on Tuesday. |
US professor wins $ 5,00,000 prize SAN FRANCISCO, April 24 (AP) — A micro electronics pioneer whose early work on minuscule transistors helped power the information age has won the world’s single largest award for invention. Mr Carver Mead, a professor of Engineering and Applied Science at the California Institute of Technology, was awarded the $ 500,000 Lemelson-Mit Prize in a ceremony at the city’s Exploratorium Museum on Thursday. “I was very surprised,” Mr Mead said. The previous awards were all given to people who had one big blockbuster patent. I don’t have one of those, so it never occurred to me that I was a candidate.” Mr Mead’s innovations also include a standard amplifying device used in microwave communication systems, which people use every day when making telephone calls or dialling into the Internet, and a hearing aid powered by a digital microchip. “They made a video where they interviewed a number of people that had those hearing aids, and it makes you cry,” said Mr Mead, 65. “These people are saying, ‘This thing has changed my life. I can hear my grandchildren now.’ That’s very satisfying.” He is best known for his
work on transistors, a project that he began in 1968 on a
suggestion from Gordon Moore of Integrated Electronics
— later Intel. |
PAEC ex-chief Munir Khan dead ISLAMABAD, April 24 (AFP) — Munir Ahmed Khan, former Chairman of the Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission (PAEC) has died in Vienna after heart bypass surgery, officials said today. Mr Khan, who headed the PAEC for 19 years till 1991, died three days ago at the age of 73. He played a significant role in the development of Pakistan’s nuclear programme after Indian nuclear tests in 1974. Mr Khan specialised in
nuclear engineering at the International Institute of
Science and Technology at Argonne. United States of
America. He was one of the first Asian scientists
appointed to the International Atomic Energy Agency
(IAEA) after its inception in 1951. |
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| Lawmakers charged with power theft ISLAMABAD: As many as 49 sitting or former Pakistani federal and provincial lawmakers, including several incumbent ministers, have been found guilty of stealing electricity, a minister said. They have been asked to pay outstanding dues and fines amounting to more than $ 280,000, Minister for Water and Power Gohar Ayub Khan told the senate in question hour yesterday. — AFP Pinochet case Missing human
link Food aid plan Nuclear club Plants turn to
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