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Friday,
November 15, 2002, Chandigarh, India  
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MMA stand setback to Pak Govt formation Pak generals buying off
civilian leaders: expert Blair for political
ties with India One hurt in blast
at Fatah centre
Chechens seize 2 aid workers |
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Mighty tuskers under threat Jiang steps down,
Hu to step in
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MMA stand setback to Pak Govt formation Islamabad, November 14 Hectic efforts to work out a compromise formula to stave off the crisis failed make any headway as the hardline religious party alliance, the Muthahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA) which has shown signs of willingness to compromise on a deal with General Musharraf, hardened its stand after an overnight brainstorming session of its top leaders in Karachi. “The parliament is the sovereign body and supremacy of any individual and any other institution would not be accepted”, MMA president Maulana Shah Ahmed Noorani told reporters. As the Central Executive Committee meeting of the MMA failed to make any real progress on a compromise formula, General Musharraf, as a last resort, telephoned Mr Noorani. Mr Noorani said he told the military ruler that the MMA would not accept the National Security Council and expressed his reservations on the Legal Framework Order (LFO). The LFO is politically and legally crucial for continuation of General Musharraf as President. MMA leader Qazi Hussain Ahmad said there was no agreement with the government nor any change in the party’s stand on the LFO. Significantly, the MMA’s prime ministerial candidate, Maulana Fazlur Rehman, who heads the Jamat Ulema Islami, the dominant party of the MMA, said he still continued to remain the candidate for the Prime Minister’s post. MMA sources said that Ahmad reportedly discussed a compromise deal with Musharraf in which the General would give some of his powers and MMA in turn would permit PML-Q leader Zarafullah Jamali to become the Prime Minister.
PTI |
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Pak generals buying off civilian leaders: expert Washington, November 14 “The only way to make things better in Pakistan will be a change in American policy and the use of American economic aid leverage to push Musharraf towards civilian rule as a condition for US aid. However, I do not see that happening”, added Harrison, senior scholar, Woodsrow Wilson International Centre. He was addressing a conference demanding human rights protection and a fair share of resources for Sindhi people here on Saturday. “I do not think the armed forces want a war. They are too busy making money. If there is a war, it will not be confined to Kashmir. Sindh will be in the frontline. So, it is certainly in the interest of the Sindhis to work with the other forces in Pakistan favouring an end to Pakistani support for Islamic militant incursions into Kashmir”, Harrison noted. Another panelist, Noor Naz Agha, a prominent lawyer in the Sindh high court, who was also a former President of the Hyderabad division of the National Democratic Party and a democracy activist, spoke about the danger minorities faced in Pakistan. “Minorities are not safe in Pakistan. Recently, several attacks have been made on Christian churches, hospitals and human rights organisations. Several people have been killed”, Agha said. Later, talking to ANI, Harrison stated, “I think the Pakistan elections were just window-dressing for the continuation of military rule. I do not think that the civilian government will be stable or be able to control the situation because Musharraf has kept all reins in his hands”.
ANI |
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Blair for political
ties with India London, November 14 “The relations between our two countries have obviously undergone a huge change in the past few years. They are stronger today than, I remember, at any point of time. That is an excellent thing,” he said last night at the House of Commons, which for the second time in a fortnight celebrated Divali. While the Divali celebration on October 31 was organised by Keith Vaz, former Minister for Europe, and several Hindu organisations, last night’s function was organised by the Labour Friends of India which has a support of 122 MPs. It was attended by Tourism Minister Jagmohan, Indian High Commissioner Ronen Sen, British Treasury Secretary Paul Boeteng, several MPs and distinguished citizens. Blair, in his comments, also recalled his “wonderful” meeting with Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee at Chequers, his week-end retreat on the outskirts of Bangalore last month and his visit to India. In his discussions with Mr Vajpayee Mr Blair said he emphasised that the bilateral relationship should not be confined just to economy and trade but should encompass political ties as well. “And that is important for our country as well as to the region and the whole world.” |
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One hurt in blast at Fatah centre Sidon (Lebanon), November 14 They said an unknown assailant threw a hand grenade at the entrance to a Fatah centre in the Ain el-Hilweh camp near the southern port city of Sidon, damaging the walls. A Fatah member at the centre was injured in the explosion, but was in a stable condition at a camp hospital. The sources said armed Fatah members fired in the air in anger. GAZA CITY: Some 20 Israeli tanks rolled into Gaza City early on Thursday and were just 200 metres from the home of Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, founder of the Islamic movement Hamas, witnesses said. At least three Palestinian policemen were wounded by shooting from the tanks and from three helicopter gunships that flew overhead. The tanks fired machineguns at the Palestinian television building in the same district, the witnesses said. Palestinian policemen fled a police station in the district, taking the prisoners with them.
Reuters, AFP |
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Chechens seize 2 aid workers Moscow, November 14 Kidnapping for ransom has long been a lucrative business for criminals in lawless Chechnya, awash with arms after almost a decade of war. The Red Cross is one of the few western aid agencies still operating inside the separatist province. The two local Red Cross drivers, Alexander Panov and Musa Satushiev, were returning to neighbouring Ingushetia from Grozny yesterday afternoon, after dropping off an aid cargo, when two attackers forced them from their trucks. Two other Red Cross workers in the convoy were allowed to go free.
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Mighty tuskers under threat Elephants in Asia and Africa face a dangerous future as a result of a decision taken at a UN conference in Santiago, Chile, on Tuesday, allowing Namibia, Botswana and South Africa to sell 30 tonnes of ivory from their stockpiles in 2004. Parties to the UN Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) voted by a slim margin the easing of the 13-year old ban on all ivory trading. The decision, facilitated by a U.S. pro-trade amendment, has angered anti-ivory trade nations and conservation groups, who fear the legal trade will result in increased illegal poaching of elephants in Asia and Africa. International Fund for Animal Welfare
(IFAW) regional director Michael Wamithi commented: “The USA and the European Union (which abstained in the voting) failed to show the moral leadership that they were capable of on the issue of elephant conservation in Africa and Asia. Elephant range states will now have to battle to protect their elephants from the certain increase in illegal poaching that will arise from the news that these stockpile sales are moving forward.” World Widlife Fund
(WWF) vice-president for species conservation Ginette Hemley said: “Until CITES addresses the illegal trade head on, legal sales can fuel demand for illicit ivory and jeopardise vulnerable elephant population in both Africa and Asia.” As a result of the CITES decision in Santiago, the three African countries are expected to receive between two and three million dollars each from the sales. According to published reports, 100,000 elephants a year were slaughtered in Africa by poachers during the 1980s before CITES imposed a ban on all international trade in ivory in 1989. The USA had then strongly supported the ban. Dr Teresa
Telecky, director of the Wildlife Trade Programme for the Humane Society of the USA, said the USA, had an unregulated, legal ivory trade that allowed the import of thousands of ivory objects every year, worth 165 million dollars annually. “The USA,” she said, “has turned a blind eye to the serious poaching and illegal trade that threatens the survival of elephants.” The USA maintains that the CITES decision is a “positive outcome” that supports the principle of sustainable use of resources. The Elephant Trade Information System, a body set up by CITES in 1997 to monitor the illegal trade in ivory, has just reported from Geneva that illegal trade in elephant ivory is on the increase. It says it has evidence implicating 150 countries in the illegal ivory trade and a list of almost 8,000 seizures of illegal elephant products since the 1989 ban. |
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Jiang steps down,
Hu to step in Beijing, November 14 The 59-year-old Mr Hu, first top leader of China whose party career began after the Communists took over in 1949, is widely expected to take over from Mr Jiang as the party head when the Central Committee meets tomorrow and also as President of the world’s most populous nation and Asia’s fastest growing economy in March.
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WASHINGTON: The government of Pakistan has requested clemency for convicted murderer Mir Aimal Kasi who is facing execution, the Pakistani Press Attache in Washington, Asad Hayauddin, said on Thursday. “Kasi’s mother sent a letter asking for mercy for her son which we forwarded to the State Department and (Virginia) Governor Mark Warner,” Hayauddin.
AFP
NAKED PROTEST, US FLAGS BURNED