 |
| Wednesday, May 17, 2000, Chandigarh, India  
|
USA tortures convicts: UN Pockets of polio ‘still remain’ Four dead in West
Bank clashes
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Praise for Indian peacekeepers
Zimbabwe poll in June
Chinese families sue Indian ship owner “Little Egypt” in London Organic food may be more risky Malik meets
B’desh PM
|
|
USA tortures convicts: UN GENEVA, May 16 (Reuters) — The United Nations publicly rebuked the USA over brutality in its prisons and called for an end to chain gangs and to the use of electro-shock belts for restraining inmates. The U.N. Committee Against Torture yesterday said it was concerned about breaches of the international convention against torture in the USA, citing the alleged sexual assault of female prisoners by law enforcement officers and the holding of minors in adult jails. This is the first time the USA, the world’s most vocal defender of human rights, has been put in the dock before the Geneva-based body alongside the usual suspects such as China. “The committee expresses its concern about the number of cases of police ill-treatment of civilians and ill-treatment in prisons. Much of this ill-treatment by police and prison guards seems to be based upon discrimination,’’ the report said. The committee’s 10 independent experts urged the USA to abolish the use of electro-shock stun belts and restraint chairs on uncooperative inmates. “The committee recommends that the state party abolish electro-shock stun belts and restraint chairs as methods of restraining those in custody. Their use almost invariably leads to breaches of...the convention,’’ they said. The report also expressed concern about what it said was the excessively harsh regime in so-called supermaximum prisons, including the practice of putting inmates in chain gangs, especially in public. The U.N. Forum’s two-day examination of the United States’ record follows the fatal police shootings of unarmed Blacks in New York and Los Angeles. London-based rights group Amnesty International charged in a 46-page report last week that practices in overcrowded U.S. prisons — whose total population recently hit two million inmates — facilitated torture and other forms of ill-treatment. Amnesty called for a halt to police beatings and the shooting of unarmed suspects. Washington says torture is prohibited by law in the USA and categorically denounced as a matter of policy and as a tool of state authority, but admits its record is not perfect. U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Harold Hongju Koh, presenting his government’s report on its compliance since ratifying the convention in 1994, said last week that instances of police abuse, excessive use of force and even brutality, the death of prisoners in custody, sexual abuse of inmates and jail overcrowding were causes for concern. The U.S. report was almost five years overdue, the committee said, and urged Washington to submit its next periodic report by November 2001. The U.N. body oversees compliance by 119 states that have ratified the torture pact, but it has no power to impose sanctions. |
|
Pockets of polio ‘still remain’ UNITED NATIONS, May 16 (PTI) — International organisations leading the global effort against polio claimed that their initiative was on track, but additional resources were needed for parts of the Indian sub-continent and Africa where the virus may still be circulating at year’s end. The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), the World Health Organisation (WHO), Rotary International and the United States Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said in a statement yesterday that their eradication campaign is making good progress towards certifying the world polio-free by 2005. According to WHO, the Americans were certified polio-free in 1994, while the Western Pacific region was aiming for certification in November 2000, and Europe in 2002. Worldwide, the number of cases had fallen by 95 per cent since the initiative was launched in 1998, WHO said. The organisations’ announcement followed the review last week by the Global Technical Consultative Group on poliomyelitis (TCG) of the progress in the remaining endemic countries. According to the TCG, certain parts of India, war-affected countries in sub-Saharan Africa and large reservoirs of the virus — particularly in Bangladesh, Nigeria and Pakistan — are likely to show continued transmission at the end of this year due to restricted access to children, late detection, insufficient vaccine supplies, lack of funds or low routine immunization coverage. Addressing the opening session of the 53 World Health Assembly, WHO Director General Dr Gro Harlem Brundtland warned that despite the successes in many countries, much remained to be done. |
|
Four dead in West Bank clashes RAMALLAH, May 16 (AP) — Teetering on the edge of a full scale conflict, Israelis and Palestinians treated their wounded and buried their dead from a day of armed clashes, but pledged to move ahead with peace efforts. Four Palestinians were killed yesterday, and at least 320 Palestinians and six Israeli soldiers were wounded, in the worst flare-up of violence in nearly four years. It came as the Israeli Cabinet and Parliament approved handing over control of three villages near Jerusalem to the Palestinians, an issue that was threatening Prime Minister Ehud Barak’s coalition government even before the gunfire. Mr Barak called Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat and demanded that he stop the violence. Mr Barak told him that the transfer of the villages would take place only after the situation is clarified. The day of clashes started with Palestinian demonstrations to mark the anniversary of the creation of the state of Israel. Palestinians call it “Al Naqba,” the catastrophe. The protests developed into confrontations with Israeli soldiers, who fired tear gas and rubber bullets at the rock-throwing protesters. |
|
Praise for Indian
peacekeepers
UNITED NATIONS, May 16 (PTI) — Indian and Kenyan troops in Sierra Leone came in for high praise from a top United Nations official who said they never surrendered even when surrounded by the Revolutionary United Front (RUF) rebels and reacted when under attack. The Indian and Kenyan troops had been sent to the north of the country in areas which were held by RUF and where no one had gone earlier, said Under Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Affairs Bernard Miyet, who has just returned from Sierra Leone. “Those troops, from India and Kenya, had the necessary equipment and motivation, never surrendered and always reacted when their forces were under attack,” he told reporters here. He said he had observed that Indian and Kenyan troops had maintained presence in cities in RUF-held areas where no multinational force or government presence had ventured before. “They were encircled, yet they did not surrender their weapons. Instead, they retaliated when they were attacked by rebels and they forced those rebels to withdraw,” he said, replying to questions on the performance of the peacekeepers. He also praised India, Kenya, Jordan and Bangladesh for not wavering in their support to the United Nations. From the very first day, these governments had decided to maintain their troops and to commit even more in the peacekeeping effort, he said. |
|
Zimbabwe poll
in June
HARARE, May 16 (AP) — Zimbabwe will hold parliamentary elections on June 24-25, the government has announced, setting up a contest that poses the greatest challenge to President Robert Mugabe’s 20-year grip on power. The elections pit Mr Mugabe’s ruling party against the opposition Movement for Democratic Change amid a climate of political violence and a wave of takeovers of white-owned farms by black squatters. Opponents have charged that fair elections would be impossible after violence by ruling party militants across this southern African country killed at least 19 people, mostly opposition figures, since February. |
|
Chinese families sue Indian ship owner BEIJING, May 16 (PTI) — Families of seven Chinese fishermen have sued an Indian ship owner for causing their death in an accident last month, an official report said. The Tianjin Municipal Maritime Court said yesterday that it would hold a hearing in a few days on charges brought by the families of seven fishermen against the Indian ship, ICI Raja Rajan, Xinhua news agency reported from the North China port city. The Chinese fishermen were suing the ship for compensation for its collision with the Chinese fish boat, “Jihuangyu 0824,” it said. According to the plaintiffs, the 60,000-tonne Indian ship ran into the Chinese fishing boat, breaking it into half and killing all seven fishermen on board on April 12 in the western waters off the Bohai sea. The ship then sailed away without making any rescue efforts, the report said. The maritime court detained the Indian ship on April 16 after confirmation of the basic facts of the case. The ship was released two days later after its owner posted $ 1 million, according to the report. |
|
“Little Egypt” in London LONDON, May 16 (Reuters) — Britain’s Petrie Museum boasts of one of the largest collections of ancient Egyptian artefacts outside Cairo. The only problem is that few people know it exists. Hidden in a warren of corridors at University College, London, the Petrie looks like any other campus office. But visitors who venture in discover a treasure-trove. The museum Houses Egyptian antiquities ranging from some of humanity’s earliest tools to an ancient beaded dancing dress and mummy sarcophagi. But, like most treasure, it’s hard to come by. Even London’s famed taxi drivers have a few problems finding it. “Never heard of it,” said one driver, whose car was parked in direct view of the museum. The curator of the Petrie, Stephen Quirke, said the problem of the mystery museum dates from World War two. “University College of London was the most heavily blitzed of the English universities,” he said. “The collection was saved just by the love and devotion of the people working at the time, who had to pack up an entire collection of 80,000 objects.” The rescue was remarkable but after the war the collection was stored in a basement before being moved to its current location in a stable building tucked away in a mews. Even today the Petrie has no room to elegantly display its exhibits. The 80,000-piece collection has been crammed into an area just slightly larger than a tennis court. Space is at a premium and every nook and cranny has been filled. Everything from rag dolls to a 4,500-year-old dress is squeezed into glass cases or stacked filing cabinets. Even the narrow fire escape holds a copious range of terra cotta pots and marble gravestones. |
|
Organic food may be more risky WASHINGTON, May 16 (Reuters) — While certain American consumers are expressing concerns about genetically modified foods, they are ignoring the safety risks of organically grown corn, soyabeans and other grains, the Chairman of Cargill has said. Cargill, the world’ biggest grain exporter, said gene-spliced food was crucial to feed a fast-growing population in the developing world and that the debate over the safety of biofoods had been dominated by “anti-science” activists in wealthy nations. Organic farming, which some environmental groups have suggested as an alternative to biofoods, was not a “panacea” to solve the world’s hunger, Ernest Micek said in a speech yesterday at a globalisation conference sponsored by the Economic Strategy Institute. “There is some evidence that food grown organically is not as healthy as food grown using conventional, high-yield agriculture, including biotechnology,’’ he said. Organic fields suffer higher levels of rodent and pest damage, which create openings for fungi to attack the grains,’’ Micek said. “Fungi produce toxins, including aflatoxin, one of the most potent of carcinogens.’’ Organic farmers typically shun most chemicals, preferring to use animal manure for fertiliser and insect predators to control pests. They contend their methods are safer, more natural and preserve the fertility of the land. At most, organically-grown crops could feed 4 billion people, or two-thirds of the current global population, Micek said. “There is nothing romantic about keeping people poor and undernourished,’’ he said. “An anti-science sentiment has been allowed to dominate the (biofoods) debate.’’ he said. While Mr Micek defended biofoods as necessary to help feed poor nations, other countries have made it clear that gene-altered crops are not welcome in their ports or food plants. The European Union banned some genetically modified varieties of grains, responding to consumers who are worried about long-term effects on human health and the environment. Many Japanese
food makers have refused to buy biotech varieties since the government said it would require labels next year on foods containing genetically altered ingredients. South Korea also plans to begin labelling biofoods in 2001. Mr Micek said there was no need for U.S. Regulators to require labels on snack foods, puddings, salad dressings, and other foods made with gene-spliced ingredients. Labels already carry more information than consumers could digest, he said. The FDA recently said it planned to make changes in the approval procedures for new biofoods, but declined requests from green groups to require safety testing or labels. Ms Rebecca Goldburg, senior scientist with environmental defence, said agribusinesses’ rush to embrace biotechnology as a way to feed the developing world ignored other, complicated issues. “Biofoods might be some small part of the solution,’’ she told the conference, but nations must still address food distribution systems, water scarcity, population growth and infrastructure. “Many of the benefits of the technology —while they may be there — are often overblown,” Ms Goldburg said. |
|
Malik meets
B’desh PM
DHAKA, May 16 (PTI) — The Indian Army Chief, Gen Ved Prakash Malik, called on Bangladesh Premier Sheikh Hasina and apprised her of various aspects of bilateral defence cooperation between the two countries, official sources said today. General Malik, who paid a courtesy call on the Prime Minister at her official residence here late yesterday, also apprised the Premier of the exchange of students between the two defence staff colleges of the two countries, the sources said. |
 |
| Punjab | Haryana | Jammu & Kashmir | Himachal Pradesh | Regional Briefs | Nation | Editorial | | Business | Sport | World | Mailbag | Chandigarh Tribune | In Spotlight | 50 years of Independence | Tercentenary Celebrations | | 120 Years of Trust | Calendar | Weather | Archive | Subscribe | Suggestion | E-mail | |
