 |
Tuesday,
March 4, 2003, Chandigarh, India  
|
Iraq speeds up disarmament pace Six more banned missiles destroyed Democrats want more debate on Iraq War may help ‘boost’ US economy Saddam should step down: Bahrain
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
8 killed as Israeli tanks raid Gaza Strip Nepal PM asks all parties to join peace talks Balasingham meets Prabhakaran Anti-ageing drugs may change society 
|
|
Iraq speeds up disarmament pace
Baghdad, March 3 At the same time, the US-British alliance against Iraq grappled yesterday with military and diplomatic setbacks and Turkey’s ruling party, stunned by Parliament’s refusal to allow US troops to deploy on the Turkish soil, considered calling a new vote. As more than 2,40,000 troops were in the Gulf awaiting orders to strike, Iraqi technicians destroyed six more banned Al-Samoud 2 missiles and experts met to discuss means to verify Baghdad’s claims that it has destroyed its biological and chemical weapons. Excavations at the Al-Aziziya air base southwest of Baghdad had uncovered fragments of nearly all 157 bombs filled with tonnes of toxic agents that Iraq insists it destroyed unilaterally in 1991, Iraqi presidential adviser Amer Al-Saadi announced. He said 1.5 tonnes of VX still to be accounted for “was unilaterally destroyed” and was being discussed with UN experts. But, he said, the destruction of the banned Al-Samoud 2 missiles would stop if the USA decided to wage war against Iraq unilaterally. Meanwhile in Ankara, Turkey’s ruling party said yesterday it was considering a new parliamentary ballot on the deployment of US troops in the country, a day after lawmakers voted narrowly to deprive US forces of a military platform for a possible invasion of Iraq from the north. The setback forced the Pentagon to look hard at alternatives to invading Iraq from Turkey, though a senior US official told the Washington Post the administration would await the upshot of the deliberations in Ankara before deciding whether to move ahead immediately with “Plan B.” London’s Sunday Telegraph reported that Washington and London were prepared to launch an attack immediately after a new UN Security Council vote, regardless of its outcome. WASHINGTON: The USA has patted the back of “courageous” members of “Iraqi opposition” who are “planning for a future democratic Iraq,” another signal of Washington’s intention of militarily attacking Baghdad. “The USA believes the just-concluded meeting of the Iraqi opposition advisory committee in Salahudeen in northern Iraq was a welcome opportunity for many courageous Iraqis to continue planning for a future democratic Iraq,” a White House statement said here.
AFP/PTI |
|
Six more banned missiles destroyed Baghdad, March 3 Uday al-Tai, the Director-General of Iraq’s Information Ministry, told AFP that six out of at least seven scheduled to be disposed of during the day had been destroyed by mid-day. He said earlier that up to nine would be scrapped today. UN inspectors are supervising the process, which meets one of the major UN demands on Iraqi disarmament. Baghdad says there are about 100 Al-Samoud 2 missiles, which UN experts say are banned because they breach the 150-km range limit set by previous resolutions.
AFP |
|
Democrats want more debate on Iraq With US President George W. Bush more than ready to push the Iraq war button even without UN sanction, there is a renewed attempt in the US Congress to re-debate its earlier enactment of a law, authorising the President to use force in a bid to compel Baghdad to disarm. More than twelve Democrats have written to Speaker of the House of Representatives, J. Dennis Hastert, urging him to allow a fresh discussion before the President decides to go to war. “The Congress is constitutionally obligated to debate and vote on any decision to go to war,” Ms Sheila Jackson-Lee said in a joint letter to the Speaker. “Article 1 and 8 of the Constitution vests the authority to declare war solely with the Congress....It is the Congress that must ultimately decide to go to war.” In an intervention in the House last week, Ms Jackson-Lee said: “A hundred billion dollars, thousands of innocent lives of Iraqi women and children and the lives of our US military and other military, I do not consider that to be a collateral damage.” She added: “The whole issue of Iraq war should be reconsidered in the light of the situation regarding North Korea, in the light of the information and question as to whether or not the USA is under imminent danger of attack, and in the light of the question being raised whether America should engage in a pre-emptive unilateral attack against Iraq.” In recent days, Congressmen have taken to the floor of the House to question the wisdom of Mr Bush’s obsession with war against Iraq. Mr Sherrod Brown recalled what President Eisenhower had told his advisers and the media who had urged him to go to war against Stalin and Soviets: “That is not what we do in this country. We don’t launch pre-emptive attacks against people. Instead, we contain, we deter, we use diplomacy.” Mr Brown warned that a pre-emptive strike against Iraq would send a wrong message around the world. “Most problematically and most dangerously and most frighteningly, it will say to India that maybe it is okay to launch a pre-emptive strike against Pakistan over Kashmir. It will say to Pakistan, maybe it is okay to launch a pre-emptive strike against India over Kashmir. Those happen to be two countries that have nuclear weapons.” Another lawmaker, Mr Mark
Udal, said Mr Bush’s rhetoric had fuelled the perception that America was eager for invasion, no matter what the rest of the world thought. This perception had been compounded by seemingly shifting goals and rationales. “It has been weapons of mass destruction one day, potential links to Al-Qaida the next, and the Iraqi President’s atrocious human rights record the day after that,” Mr Udal pointed out. |
|
|
War may help ‘boost’ US economy New York, March 3 Time magazine quotes advisers of President George W. Bush as saying that the economy would surge after the war as relieves businesses start spending and investing to meet the pent up demand. The advisers also point out that the victory in war could jump start a President’s stalled poll numbers. With a post-war mandate, they tell Time, Congressional opposition to his tax cuts will melt away. “History shows,” a top Bush adviser was quoted as saying, “once the shooting starts, the public rallies around the President. And once it’s over, this President will use his political capital to get things done at home.”
PTI |
|
|
Saddam should step down: Bahrain Dubai, March 3 Sheik Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa, a close US ally, was quoted as saying that the proposal by Emirates President Sheik Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan to Arab leaders urging Saddam to step down was “honest advice to the Iraqi leadership.” “It is the only Arab way out to protect Iraq and spare its people and the whole region the threats (of war),” the agency quoted him as saying after meeting Sheik Zayed in the Emirati capital, Abu Dhabi, earlier yesterday. Bahraini officials were not immediately available for comment. Sheik Zayed became the first Arab leader on Saturday to formally call on the Iraqi leadership to step down to prevent a US-led war. The aging Emirati leader proposed in a letter to Arab heads of states meeting in Egypt at an annual summit that Arab states press Saddam and his leadership to give up power in exchange for immunity from prosecution. He proposed that Iraq be governed by the Arab League and the United Nations until it could return to “its normal situation.” Arab leaders at the summit in the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheik did not discuss the Emirates proposal, and Iraq has vehemently denounced it. Meanwhile, Kuwait’s Cabinet has backed the call Kuwait’s official news agency reported.
AP |
|
8 killed as Israeli tanks raid Gaza Strip
Gaza City, March 3 Around 40 Israeli tanks and armoured personnel carriers accompanying infantry units moved into the El Bureij refugee camp south of Gaza City, meeting with stiff resistance, a Palestinian security source said. The soldiers blew up four houses after telling the residents to leave but the expectant mother remained inside and was killed by the falling rubble, medical sources said. She was identified as Nuher Sweidan el-Makadna, 33, and was nine-month expectant, doctors in a hospital in the nearby town of Deir el-Balah said. Tareq Akel, 13, was among those shot dead during exchanges of fire between Israeli troops and Palestinian militants. The six others killed were aged between 17 and 24. It was not known if they were armed. Thirty-five other Palestinians were wounded, with eight in critical condition, security sources said. The deaths brought the toll since the start of the Palestinian uprising in September 2000 to 3,012, including 2,261 Palestinians and 695 Israelis. Later today, the Israeli Army launched a major operation in the Casbah, or old town, of Nablus city centre in the North of the West Bank, the Palestinian security source said. Some 20 tanks and numerous other military vehicles took up positions near the entrance to the old town and the Israeli troops imposed a curfew in the sector, firing salvos of warning shots. One of the three houses blown up was the home of Ayama Tahha, 67, a local leader of the Islamic Resistance Movement, Hamas, who was captured with his two sons. A representative of the Hamas, Ismael Hanyeh, said Israel was guilty of “terrorism” and held it responsible for the health of the arrested man. The two other houses destroyed were the homes of two members of another radical Palestinian movement, Islamic Jihad, sought by Israel. It was in one of them that the woman died. Two houses belong to a local leader of Hamas in Tulkaram in the West Bank were also demolished, Palestinian officials said.
AFP |
|
Nepal PM asks all parties to join peace talks Kathmandu, March 3 "The government does not want to exclude political parties in the peace process. We invite them to be a part of the peace process and we are ready to disseminate whatever information they want from us," Mr Chand said here yesterday. The Prime Minister’s remarks came in contrast to that of Minister for Housing, Physical Planning and Construction and talks coordinator Narayan Singh Pun, who stated the government would not wait for parties to join the talks, which he claimed would start within a week. Parties, including the Nepali Congress and the Nepal Communist Party (UML), had recently boycotted the all-party meeting called by Mr Chand and had demanded the peace process must be transparent. "I am still hopeful that they will participate in the peace process in the days ahead," the premier said. Meanwhile, Mr Pun said the talks would be held in three phases, political, military and humanitarian levels. Currently the main challenge before the nation was to include Maoists within the framework of existing polity through safe management of the ongoing conflict, he added. Meanwhile, CPN-UML general secretary Madhav Kumar Nepal asked the Maoists to justify their demands, including a round-table conference, interim government and constituent assembly elections. None of the parties would cooperate with the Maoists if they failed to justify their demands, he warned. Political parties are arguing that the three major demands of the Maoists were irrelevant since they had accepted both constitutional monarchy and pluralistic political system. Amid reports that the Nepalese Government might release some Maoists under detention ahead of peace talks, the victims of the violence said "criminals" who allegedly killed their near and dear ones should not be allowed to go scot-free in the name of peace. The government was moving forward to release the rebels who were under detention, said Mr Pun, yesterday. Even as the government and the Maoists were finalising a 20-point code of conduct to start talks for ending the seven-year-long insurgency, the victims of insurgency said the ongoing peace process between the government and the Maoists should take note of their pains and sufferings. A source said the government had handed over the amended code of conduct to the Maoists. The talks would begin next week if the Maoists agree to the code of conduct, said a source close to the Prime Minister.
PTI |
|
India to help build school in Nepal Kathmandu, March 3 An agreement has been reached to provide assistance in four instalments for the construction of the building, which will be named the Nepal-India Friendship Building. According to Mr Mahesh Sharma, Headmaster of the school, the building will comprise an office, a meeting hall and a library.
UNI |
|
|
Balasingham meets Prabhakaran Colombo, March 3 The two rebel leaders met for the second time today after holding three-hour discussions yesterday at a secret location in north-eastern region of Mullaitivu. Yesterday, they discussed the peace process and the talks to be held at Hakone in Japan from March 18 to 21, the ‘Voice of Tigers’ radio said. Balasingham, who arrived in the island yesterday along with his Australian-born wife Adele in a Sri Lankan Airlines airbus, was taken to the rebel-held Wanni region in a military helicopter from Colombo airport. This is Balasingham’s third visit to Sri Lanka since the Norwegian-backed peace process started. Meanwhile, Prabhakaran is also due to hold talks with Japanese and Norwegian envoys within the next two weeks. Norway’s Foreign Minister Jan Petersen is due to arrive in Sri Lanka on March 12 and is set to travel to the north for talks with Parbhakaran and Balasingham.
PTI |
|
Anti-ageing drugs may change society Cleveland, March 3 Some experts at work in the area of slowing or stopping ageing suggest that human lifespan can be increased by up to 40 per cent. One researcher says anti-aging drugs or therapies can allow women to reach an average lifespan of 112. If such a breakthrough occurs, “probably every social institute we know will be radically changed,” Mr Robert Binstock, professor of ageing, health and society, Case Western University, said. “We ought to think ahead about this and consider how much we want to encourage the anti-ageing research,” he said in a science journal. “Our main point is we haven’t even begun to think about this very much,” he said. “We ought to get a better understanding of what potentially is going on.” “If there are tens of millions of people aged 85-112 who are healthy, the implications can be far more serious than stem cells or cloning,” Mr Binstock warned. “Serious ethical issues would arise if anti-ageing interventions were not universally available, but were distributed in response to status (economic, social, or political), merit, nationality, or other criteria,” Mr Binstock’s team wrote in the journal. On the other hand, the team said: “If access to anti-aging interventions are unlimited, radical societal changes will take place in virtually every social institution.” There also could be “problems of overpopulation, which could have worldwide implications ecologically,” Mr Binstock said. “In terms of public policy, we certainly would find it very difficult to have anything like the programmes (such as social security) we have now,” he explained. “Some researchers have predicted that significant advances in anti-ageing therapies can arrive as soon as 10 years from now. So it may be prudent for the US National Institutes of Health to lead a public debate on the potential ramifications of extending lifespan,” the professor opined. However, Mr Huber Warner, associate director of the biology of ageing programme at NIH’s National Institute on Ageing said the prospect of extending lifespan was not imminent. “I don’t see anything on the horizon that all of a sudden we’re going to start living 50 years longer due to some intervention,” he said. “The average life span is ... only increasing at the realm of a year per 20 years,” he said. Mr Binstock’s team wrote in the journal that the NIH was funding scientists trying to develop drugs to slow the ageing process - something that Mr Warner said was misleading.
UPI |
 |
| 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 | | 123 Years of Trust | Calendar | Weather | Archive | Subscribe | Suggestion | E-mail | |
