 |
Wednesday,
April 10, 2002, Chandigarh, India  
|
Israel raids West Bank village
Pulitzer prizes honour Sept 11 coverage International criminal court in a week Bhutto: N-threat irresponsible
Referendum on Pervez on
April 30
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Britons bid farewell to Queen Mother
9 Maoists killed in Nepal
|
|
Israel raids West Bank village
Jerusalem, April 9 “Army forces began to operate overnight in Dura village south of Hebron with the aim of catching wanted men and carrying out searches for weapons as part of the army’s operation to destroy the terrorist infrastructure,” the Israeli army said. It gave no further details and there were no immediate reports of clashes with Palestinians in Dura. The army pulled out of Qalqilya and Tulkarm after US President George W. Bush heatedly demanded that a defiant Prime Minister Ariel Sharon start a withdrawal from Palestinian areas. But Israel gave no indication when its forces would quit other cities, villages and refugee camps seized in a fierce armour, infantry and aerial offensive after a suicide bomber killed 27 people in Israel on March 27. The Israeli Defence Ministry said a blockade around Qalqilya and Tulkarm would be tightened after the pullback. Israel says the offensive is intended to isolate Palestinian President Yasser Arafat and round up militants accused of carrying out or planning suicide attacks against Israelis. The Palestinians say Israel wants to dismantle the Palestinian Authority and topple Mr Arafat. Meanwhile Israeli soldiers were killed in fighting with Palestinians in the West Bank today, Qatar’s Al-Jazeera television station reported. Nine of them died in the Palestinian refugee camp in Jenin. The report could not be immediately confirmed. Two Palestinians were killed early today by Israeli soldiers who had taken over the village of Dura, south of the West Bank city of Hebron, Palestinian officials said.
United Nations: UN Security Council members grilled the Israeli ambassador on Israel’s refusal to withdraw from Palestinian cities and its use of military force, but didn’t get commitments to end the escalating violence. After a nearly two-hour closed-door session with Israeli Ambassador Yehuda Lancry, the council met privately with the Palestinian UN observer Nasser Al-Kidwa to find out why Israel has not implemented the council’s demand for an immediate ceasefire.
Reuters, AFP, AP
|
||
|
Pulitzer prizes honour Sept 11 coverage New York, April 9 The Times staff won the most prestigious of the Pulitzers, for public service, for its special section “A Nation Challenged,’’ published regularly after the attacks on New York and Washington in which about 3,000 persons were killed. The Pulitzer Prize Board, which announced the 86th annual awards at Columbia University, said the section “coherently and comprehensively covered the tragic events, profiled the victims and tracked the developing story, locally and globally.’’ The Wall Street Journal staff won the Pulitzer for breaking news, reporting on the attacks “under the most difficult circumstances,’’ the board said. Journal staff members had to flee their offices across the street from the World Trade Center on September 11 but, working from their homes and a makeshift newsroom in New Jersey, managed to put out a newspaper the next day. “This Pulitzer Prize ... belongs not just to the reporters and editors, but also to our computer support folks, our paginators, our press operators, our delivery people, to all of the employees,’’ said Managing Editor Paul Steiger. New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman won a Pulitzer — his third — for commentary. The board commended his “clarity of vision, based on extensive reporting, in commenting on the worldwide impact of the terrorist threat.’’ Friedman won the prize for international reporting in 1983 for his coverage of Lebanon and in 1988 of Israel. The Times staff won both Pulitzers in photography — breaking news for coverage of the attack and aftermath and feature coverage “chronicling the pain and the perseverance of people’’ in Afghanistan and Pakistan. The Times staff also won the prize for explanatory reporting “that profiled the global terrorism network and the threats it posed,’’ said the board. The previous record for Pulitzer journalism prizes awarded to a single news organisation was three. The prize for international reporting went to The Times’ Barry Bearak, co-bureau chief in New Delhi, India, for his coverage of daily life in war-torn Afghanistan. The Washington Post staff won the Pulitzer for national reporting for its coverage of “America’s war on terrorism, which regularly brought forth new information together with skilled analysis,’’ the board said. The prize for investigative reporting went to Sari Horwitz, Scott Higham and Sarah Cohen of The Washington Post for a series exposing the District of Columbia’s role in the neglect and death of 229 children while in protective care. Los Angeles Times writer Barry Siegel won the prize for feature writing for his “haunting’’ portraits of a man tried for negligence in the death of his son. Justin Davidson of Newsday in Long Island, New York, won the prize for criticism for his coverage of classical music. The editorial writing prize went to Alex Raksin and Bob Sipchen of the Los Angeles Times, who wrote about mental illness and homelessness. The editorial cartooning prize went to Clay Bennett of The Christian Science Monitor, a finalist for the past three years. ‘Topdog/Underdog,’ a bruising yet often comic two-character play about sibling rivalry and dreams denied, won the Pulitzer Prize and made Suzan-Lori Parks the first black woman to win the drama award.
Reuters, AP |
|
International criminal court in a week THE world’s first permanent international criminal court is all set to come into existence this week, more than 50 years after the United Nations (UN) mooted an idea of such an institution to deal with genocide, war crimes, crime of aggression and crimes against humanity. The historic occasion of the deposit of 60 ratifications of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC) will be marked at a special event at the UN in New York on Thursday. Already 139 countries have signed the 1998 treaty and 56 of them have ratified. The number of countries ratifying the statute is expected to reach-or top-the necessary 60 for the court to come into existence. The countries about to hand in ratification papers are Bulgaria, Bolivia, Cambodia, Greece and Romania. If the ratifications are deposited as planned, the satute will come into force on July 1. From that date, crimes within the court’s jurisdiction, including genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity, would become subject to possible international prosecution. States, parties to the Rome Statute, along with the UN Security Council and the court’s prosecutor will have the power to bring cases before the ICC, which will have judges from 18 countries and an independent prosecutor. The court is expected to be established at the Hague in 2003. The USA under the Clinton administration signed the treaty just before Mr Clinton's term ended, but President Bush is refusing to ratify the treaty, although most of his European and Nato allies have already done so. India is conspicuous in not even signing the treaty. It has argued that the Rome Statute has fallen short of its expectations on several normative issues, including non-inclusion of international terrorism in the crimes covered and refusal to treat as international crime the first use of nuclear weapons, which would result in the annihilation of a greatmass of humanity. Another objection raised by India is that the Rome Statute has legitimised the overstretched interpretation of the powers of the Security Council by subordinating the court to the discretion of the five permanent members. India had emphaised in Rome that "the ICC should be based on the principles of complementality, state sovereignty, and non-intervention in internal affairs of state." Other countries in Asia which have declined to sign the Rome treaty include China, Pakistan, Japan and Indonesia. |
|
Bhutto: N-threat irresponsible Islamabad, April 9 “The whole purpose of nuclear weapons is to deter war,” Mr Bhutto said in a statement. “Anyone who has seen pictures of Hiroshima can never use weapons that self destruct not only one’s opponents but one’s own people.” Online news agency quoted Mr Bhutto as saying that the lives of the people of Pakistan were most precious to her and “it was the job of the leadership to prevent war and promote peace so that the people could live in safety and security.” Mr Bhutto said during her Pakistan People’s Party’s (PPP) government, the country concentrated on development and social progress by ensuring that the borders did not become so hot as to invite conflict and tension with catastrophic results. She renewed her call for India and Pakistan to negotiate a peace pact while acknowledging they have different perceptions on the Kashmir dispute. In recent weeks, General Musharraf has released 1,300 people earlier arrested in his campaign to curb militancy in Pakistan. Significantly, she said, not a single leader was charged with a criminal offence. General Musharraf has refused to extradite Omar Sheikh, who is wanted by the USA for the kidnapping and murder of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl. His aggressive remarks on the use of nuclear weapons are a “bid to placate” extremist political parties as well as military hardliners as he heads into a controversial referendum on his presidency, she said.
IANS |
|
Referendum on Pervez on
April 30
Islamabad, April 9 General Musharraf, who assumed power in a bloodless coup in October, 1999, said when he announced the referendum last Friday he wanted to stay in power to ensure his reform programme continued but promised parliamentary elections would be held by October. All major parties have denounced the referendum as unconstitutional, but General Musharraf says the Constitution allows him to call a referendum on “important national issues”.
Reuters |
|
|
Kalpana Chawla set for new mission New York, April 9 Ms Chawla has special skills needed for this unusual flight, say officials at the US National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). As part of Flight STS (Space Transportation System) 107 that takes off on July 11, 41-year-old Chawla would be conducting experiments along with other crew members, officials indicated, though they admitted they were unable to flesh out the specifics of her responsibilities. In January, 1998, Ms Chawla was assigned as crew representative for shuttle and station flight crew equipment. Subsequently, she was assigned as the lead for Astronaut Office’s crew systems and habitability section. “The main thing about STS 107 is that it is at the moment a little bit of an unusual flight for us because it is so focused on science,” Johnson Space Centre spokesperson Dong Peterson said. Apart from Ms Chawla, the crew includes Israeli astronaut Ilan Ramon. The STS 107 will not be going to the International Space Station, but they will be conducting a “space hab” experiment called Free Star, Peterson said. “Ms Kalpana is one of our favourite astronauts, who has taken part in at least one other mission. She is a very well respected member of the astronaut corps,” Peterson said. Ms Chawla will be mission specialist number 2, among four mission specialists in the seven-member crew. The Columbia 0V-102, which Ms Chawla will be on, will be on a 16-day mission and go to an altitude of 150 nautical miles, under Commander Rick Husband. A student of Tagore School in Karnal, Haryana, Ms Chawla came to the USA in 1982 after graduating from Punjab Engineering College in aeronautical engineering in the same year. She also has a Master’s in Aerospace engineering from the University of Texas (1984) and a doctorate in the same from the University of Colorado (1988). After becoming a US citizen, she was admitted into NASA’s astronaut programme in 1994, one of only 20 candidates selected from some 4,000 applicants.
IANS |
|
Britons bid farewell to Queen Mother London, April 9 In a great display of royal pageantry, soldiers and bands prepared to escort the royal matriarch’s coffin as people across Britain and around the world mourned her death. The 13th century abbey’s great Tenor Bell was rung 101 times to mark the age of the Queen Mother Elizabeth, its sonorous tones echoing across the surrounding squares and streets crowded with mourners. Thousands of people, many holding British flags, began lining up along the funeral procession route before dawn despite strong winds, freezing temperatures and a gray sky. Some 25 foreign royals, including the monarchs of Spain, Sweden, Denmark, Belgium and the Netherlands attended, along with US first lady Laura Bush, and the leaders of Australia, Canada, New Zealand and the representatives of many other countries.
AP |
|
9 Maoists killed in Nepal Kathmandu, April 9 At least six armed Maoists, including three district-level commanders, were gunned down by the security forces in Bardia and one in Rolpa district in mid-western Nepal yesterday while two district-level armed Maoists were killed in Gorkha today, the Defence Ministry said in a press note. The security forces seized some arms and ammunition from Maoists across the country and defused some explosives planted by the rebels. Meanwhile, New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has urged the Maoists to guarantee the safety of journalists reporting on the current conflict.
UNI |
 |
| Punjab | Haryana | Jammu & Kashmir | Himachal Pradesh | Regional Briefs | Nation | Editorial | | Business | Sport | World | Mailbag | In Spotlight | Chandigarh Tribune | Ludhiana Tribune 50 years of Independence | Tercentenary Celebrations | | 122 Years of Trust | Calendar | Weather | Archive | Subscribe | Suggestion | E-mail | |
