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Friday,
May 4, 2001, Chandigarh, India  
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America ready to sell missile shield plan Koirala questioned in bribery scam Give unhindered freedom: Annan Canadian envoy meets LTTE leaders Laura Bush joins elite club Kidman
still dreams of finding love |
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America ready to sell missile shield plan Washington, May 3 Mr Bush on Tuesday said the shield was needed to guard against attacks by “rogue states”. Turning decades of arms control orthodoxy on its head, Mr Bush said the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile (ABM) treaty with Russia, which bars such defences, was obsolete. Officials would not be drawn into assessing a flurry of reaction on the shield from Europe and Asia. They would be going on top-level missions to consult with major powers. “As the President announced, he is dispatching high-level officials ... to allied capitals to consult with our friends in Europe, Asia, Australia, Canada,” said State Department spokesman Philip Reeker. The envoys would endeavor to give “a clear view of where we’re coming from with this and so that we could hear their views and their concerns,” Mr Reeker said. Under the plans being drawn up, Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage would leave for Japan, South Korea and India early next week, while the Assistant Secretary of State for East Asia and Pacific affairs, Mr Kelley, would leave for Australia and Singapore. “He (Mr Kelly) may also stop in China for discussions related to missile defence,” said Mr Reeker. Deputy Defence Secretary Paul Wolfowitz and Deputy National Security Adviser Steve Hadley were scheduled to travel to Europe on a similar mission, Mr Reeker said. But Opposition Democratic leaders denounced the proposal as overly ambitious and based on a questionable premise, making it clear that the plan would face an uphill battle in the divided US Congress. “The premise on which all this is based is somewhat faulty — that is, deterrence does not work,” said Senator Joe Biden, senior Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. “I have great concerns about a unilateral decision because it could result in a new cold war, what I call cold war II” and nuclear proliferation, said Democratic Senator Carl Levin, a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee . Mr Bush’s plans for a shield look set to become the latest point of contention in Washington’s highly tense relationship with Beijing. Beijing: Meanwhile, China today warned the USA that discarding the (ABM) treaty would jeopardise world peace and stability. The official Xinhua news agency quoted a Foreign Ministry spokesman commenting on US President George W. Bush’s speech on Tuesday calling for the treaty to be replaced to allow the USA to deploy a national missile defence (NMD) system. “We believe that the Anti-Ballistic Missile treaty is the cornerstone for safeguarding global strategic balance and stability,” Xinhua quoted spokesman Zhu Bangzao as saying. Destroying the treaty would “spark a new round of arms race, which will be unfavourable to world peace, development and stability,” Xinhua said. Mr Bush’s NMD plans threaten to further damage China-US ties already strained by a collision between a US spy plane and a Chinese jet fighter, US arms sales to Taiwan, and pledges to help the island defend itself.
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Koirala questioned in bribery scam Kathmandu, May 3 The bribery accusations by the Opposition and some rebels within the Prime Minister’s governing party have led to demands for Mr Koirala’s resignation. The Civil Aviation Minister, Mr Tarini Dutt, resigned after the scandal broke out in January. Earlier, Mr Koirala said he would quit if he was questioned by the Commission for Investigation of Abuse of Authority, the country’s constitutional watchdog. However, several ministers and aides persuaded him to stay on during an emergency Cabinet meeting yesterday. The Nepalese Airline had taken the Boeing 767 on a lease from Lauda Air of Austria, whose crew operated the plane. The commission sent a questionnaire to the Prime Minister yesterday. It asked why the deal was approved by the Cabinet when it only needed the approval of the Civil Aviation Ministry, the Kathmandu Post reported. The state-owned airline has lost nearly Rs 75 million ($ 1.6 mn) per month through lack of business since the new aircraft was leased in December, said a committee of lawmakers that probed the deal. The Opposition says the national carrier didn’t need an extra jet, but the government went ahead with the deal because some officials wanted to make money. Last week, the police arrested a former head of the state-run airline, Hari Bhakta Shrestha, and one airline board member for alleged involvement in the bribery scandal.
AP |
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Give unhindered freedom: Annan Windhoek (Namibia), May 3 Representatives of governments, UN and media organisations, meeting on the opening day of the conference on World Press Freedom Day, decided to launch the campaign against restrictions on free flow of information, to fight racism and discrimination while looking for ways to check the use of Internet for spreading communal hatred. “We all know that censorship has been used to suppress political dissent and enforce status quo rather than to protect society or minorities. On the other hand, no jurisdiction considers freedom of speech an absolute right,” Mr Jyoti Shankar Singh, Executive Coordinator of UN Commission for Human Rights said. The three-day conference is being held in the Namibian capital where the ‘Windhoek Declaration’ on press freedom was adopted 10 years ago. Mr Annan, in a joint message, said: “We call upon decision-makers at all levels to do whatever they can to ensure that journalists can pursue their work unhindered and undeterred.” Namibian Information Minister Theo-Ben Gurirab asked the journalists to assess the challenges and prospects before them professionally. United Nations: Meanwhile, India has criticised media’s excessive coverage of armed conflicts around the world and urged the United Nations’ information division to focus on other issues. “Unfortunate as these conflicts are, there is a vast reality of underdevelopment which may not be breaking the news, but has been soul-breaking news for countless generations,” Indian Ambassador to the UN Kamalesh Sharma said addressing the UN Information Committee on Wednesday. About half of the world’s population lives on less than $ 2 a day and 1.2 billion earn less than a dollar, he said, adding that in comparison, a lower number is affected by armed conflicts which often are the product of lack of development.
PTI |
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Canadian envoy meets LTTE leaders Colombo, May 3 Ms Ruth Archibald, Canadian High Commissioner, met SP Thamilchelvam, leader of the LTTE political wing, in the northern Wanni jungles on Tuesday. “The meeting provided an opportunity to communicate directly, and to all parties to the conflict in Sri Lanka, Canada’s desire for peace, and belief that the fighting must stop,” said a statement from the embassy. Mr Archibald said she had spoken later to Mr Erik Solheim, Norwegian envoy, who had worked for two years to broker peace talks. The government and rebels have agreed to Norway’s assistance. The Canadian Government “believes strongly that the conflict can only be brought to an end through a political settlement” and supports the Norwegian effort, said the statement. Mr Archibald’s trip to the Wanni jungle was for the first time that a Canadian diplomat has visited the rebels in Sri Lanka.
AP |
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Laura Bush joins elite club Los Angeles, May 3 Laura Bush, 54, joins the ranks of Julia Roberts, George Clooney and Jennifer Lopez in a list dominated by the Hollywood movie stars and the pop singers. Mr Bush says People magazine applies the “less is more’’ philosophy to her beauty routine as well as her handbag. “Just like every other woman in America, I carry a lipstick, a hairbrush and altoids,’’ she told People magazine. British actress Catherine Zeta-Jones, the new wife of Michael Douglas, graces the cover of the People special issue and although it is her third appearance on the list she still recalls a time when she was the ugly duckling. “I was teased because I had a really flat-looking nose and before I got braces my teeth used to stick out a bit,” she said of growing up in Wales. Oscar winner Julia Roberts makes her sixth appearance, a record she shares with Michelle Pfeiffer and Tom Cruise. Oscar winner Benicio del Toro smolders alongside Johnny Depp and Britain’s Colin Firth, while “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon’’ stars Chow Yun Fat and Zhang Ziyi reflect the list’s international flavor. Basketball player Kobe Bryant, baseball player Alex Rodriguez, American football coach Jon Gruden, TV executive Carole Black and US Representative Harold Ford Jr Are among the non-celebrity beauties on the list of 50. The list is alphabetical rather than in order of beauty.
Reuters |
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Kidman still dreams of finding love London, May 3 The statuesque Australian redhead, whose latest film “Moulin Rouge” opens soon, told London’s daily mirror she still did not know why Cruise filed for divorce in February. “No matter what your experience is, no matter what your past, no matter what goes on in your life — you can still fall in love,” Kidman said in the interview in Los Angeles. Kidman said the four months since her split from Cruise, whom she married in December 1990, had been tough. “It gave me wisdom. Anything that involves suffering and pain makes you a wiser person,” she said. Cruise, (38) cited irreconcilable differences in divorce papers which gave the date of separation as December, 2000. In a statement, the couple cited the strains of their divergent careers.
Reuters |
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Smugglers thrive on exotic animals Vienna, May 3 They were being brought into Austria in plastic bags, make-up cases and under laundry in suitcases, according to customs officers. There was a flourishing “exchange” in the Czech capital Prague, and a clandestine headquarters in eastern Austria. Austrian Customs Chief Rudolf Tomek said in the past two years 1,100 tortoises, 1,260 spiders and reptiles, and “kilos of colourful corals” had been found. “A foreign legionary from South America once had the skin of a four-metre python with him. It was meant as a present for his mother-in-law”, said Mr tomek. He said the illegal trade in valuable animals and plants brought in billions of schillings for the smugglers was equivalent to hundreds of millions of dollars. A “turntable” was lower Austria province, which borders on the Czech Republic to the North. Professional gangs were a quite different problem than amateur souvenir-hunters. According to the International Civil Aviation Association (IATA), the former had a gigantic turnover, second only to that of the drugs mafias. The animals were often brought into Austria from central and east European countries, said Mr Tomek. In Prague, dealers displayed their lucrative wares. For instance a Hyacinth Ara, a species of parrot, could fetch more than one million schillings ($ 64,700 - 72,700 euros). Customs inspector Walter Schwarzinger said private Austrian citizens were often customers. On one occasion “I didn’t believe my eyes when a three-meter boa crawled out past a bed. Some people have rebuilt their bedroom into a terrarium”. They had even used old television sets. “The electronics go out, sand in, a few plants, and the terrarium is ready.” The customs men said if a smuggled animal was found, it was confiscated. The animals ended up in zoos, where they were put in strict quarantine with veterinarians to look after them. Anyone violating the Washington Agreement on Protection of Species by importing listed animals to Austria without permission faced up to two years in jail. But often, said Mr Tomek, vacationers returning with an exotic “pet” swore they had never imagined they were doing anything illegal. In some cases, said zoologist at Vienna’s Schoenbrunn Zoo Harald Schwammer, animals could be returned to their native habitats. “we succeeded twice in returning 500 protected tortoises to a Greek island.” sometimes modern technology was used. Microchips were planted into the animals to trace them if they were ever brought back again. The Environment Ministry said the new strict measures were bearing fruit. Illegal imports of exotic animals threatened with extinction were declining. But, Mr Tomek said he was not so optimistic. Recently he had confiscated two sacks from the Czech Republic filled with chirruping crickets. “Where there’s a flourishing trade in animal feed, exotic animals are not far behind.”
DPA |
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