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Friday,
April 4, 2003, Chandigarh, India  
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Arab
nations call for UN Assembly |
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China
accuses USA of rights abuse Security
Council to discuss N. Korea crisis |
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‘Chai
bazaar’ launched in London Hijacked
boat returns to Cuba Serbia-Montenegro
inducted into Council of Europe
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4 Palestinians
killed in Gaza Gaza, April 3 In the West Bank town of Qalqilya, witnesses said, the Israeli troops shot dead two Palestinians in separate incidents, one of them a 14-year-old boy. The army said the overnight operation in Rafah camp targeted buildings used by gunmen and arms smugglers. It did not comment on the dead youth in Qalqilya town, but said forces in nearby Nablus killed a wanted man from militant group Hamas. The witnesses said helicopters roared overhead as about 30 Israeli tanks and armoured personnel carriers accompanied by armoured bulldozers penetrated Rafah, a hardscrabble camp near Gaza’s border with Egypt, just after midnight. A Palestinian gunman was killed in the ensuing clashes. Another three persons died in a helicopter missile strike. The army described them as fighters armed with rifles and grenades, while witnesses said they were unarmed bystanders. The army said it razed four uninhabited buildings that served as gun nests for militants and were used to conceal tunnels for smuggling munitions from nearby Egypt. In Nablus, witnesses said, Israeli special forces swooped on a residential building and, after its occupants fired at them, shot dead Khaled Samakri, a Jordanian citizen, who had been in the West Bank for three years. The army said Samakri was a wanted Hamas man and that its forces arrested another member of the Islamic militant group in the predawn operation.
Reuters |
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Arab nations call for UN Assembly Cairo, April 3 He has been in close contact with his Moroccan counterpart Mohammed Benaissa and Arab League
secretary-general Amr Mussa over the possibility of Arab foreign ministers calling for such a meeting. “We have to pursue our efforts as the situation is very serious and the Iraqi people are being subjected to bombardments and death everyday,”
Mr Maher said. In New York, US ambassador to the United Nations John Negroponte said he saw no need for a General Assembly session on Iraq. “We do not think that it is either necessary or
desirable, "he said. The five permanent members of the Security Council — Britain, China, France, Russia and the USA—cannot exercise their veto right on the General Assembly, which comprises all 191 UN members. Mr Negroponte said there would be ample opportunity for the council to discuss Iraq in April, when humanitarian aid would be the main issue. Arab foreign ministers decided on March 24 to call for a General Assembly if the Security Council failed to call for an end to the US-led war on Iraq.
AFP |
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China accuses USA of rights abuse Beijing, April 3 A report by the State Council, or cabinet, titled “The Human Rights Record of the United States in 2002”, was Beijing’s answer to an annual State Department report highly critical of China’s human rights record issued earlier this week. The Chinese report, issued by the official Xinhua news wire, said Washington had given distorted pictures and levied criticism of human rights conditions in China and elsewhere, but failed to address the human rights problems in the USA. The report said the US rights record had deteriorated in the wake of the September 11, 2001, attacks on Washington and New York. ‘’Racial discrimination has been on the rise in the USA since the September 11 terrorist attacks. Discrimination against Muslims and Arabs is the most serious,’’ it said. It accused the USA of executing child offenders and the mentally ill. DHAKA: Bangladesh on Thursday rejected a US government human rights report that blasted Dhaka for “serious” rights abuses. The report was not reflective of “ground realities” and overlooked the fact that “judicial enquiries have been initiated into many reported deaths in custody as well as other alleged atrocities committed by the law enforcing agencies,” a government spokesman said.
Reuters, AFP |
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Security Council to discuss N. Korea crisis United Nations, April 3 Though North Korea is demanding bilateral talks with the USA to resolve the issue, Washington wants the council, a multilateral forum, to deal with it. The council could impose economic sanctions but North Korea has warned that it would treat any embargo as an “act of war.” North Korea had announced on January 12 its decision to withdraw from the treaty and barred the UN nuclear watchdog agency, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), from inspecting its facilities. Six weeks ago, the IAEA’s Board of Governors had referred the matter to the Council. China, a veto wielding member, had supported North Korea’s demand for bilateral talks with the USA but current President of the council Ambassador Adolfo Aguilar Zinser of Mexico, said all members were on board, indicating that China had lifted its objection during the closed-door consultations yesterday at which the decision to discuss the issue on next Wednesday was taken. China’s UN Ambassador Wang Yingian said they had agrees for consultations on the issue on April 9 but did not say whether his government would support a statement
condemning North Korea. PTI |
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WHO team in SARS epicentre Beijing, April 3 “There is no need to worry. The spread of atypical pneumonia in mainland China has been effectively curbed and it is safe to work, tour and live in China,” Chinese Health Minister Zhang Wenkang told a news conference. The minister decided to hold a press conference after international pressure mounted on China because of its apparent reluctance to release information on the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS). The Geneva-based WHO, which was earlier not allowed by China to visit Guangdong, has advised travellers not to travel to Hong Kong and Guangdong. Providing the latest official figures, Zhang said there was no evidence for saying that SARS cases were spreading in Guangdong province, which the WHO says could be the source of the disease which has spread to Hong Kong, Singapore, Vietnam, Canada and the USA. At least 78 persons have died in Asia and Canada and more than 2,200 have been sickened in over a dozen countries, the WHO said. No effective cure has been found, and scientists have not confirmed which virus causes the flu-like disease. Zhang said the cause of SARS had not yet been identified and that it was imperative to find out the exact cause of the epidemic, and global efforts should be made to define what it was, so as to bring it under effective control. Meanwhile, reports from Guangzhou, capital of Guangdong province, said a five-member WHO team was quickly whisked away by Chinese officials. The experts are expected to take samples from initial SARS patients to help identify the virus responsible for the disease.
PTI |
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‘Chai bazaar’ launched in London London, April 3 Set up jointly by the Indian Tea Board and Chor Bizarre, the new concept promises the ultimate Indian tea-drinking experience in earthen pots in a relaxed setting. The launch of “chai bazaar” on Monday was marked by a reading of Indian-born British writer George Orwell’s essay “Eleven steps to preparing a nice cup of tea” by Indian-origin television actress Meera Syal. In his essay, Orwell, who is better known for his novels 1984 and animal farm, pointed out that anyone who has used the comforting phrase “a nice cup of tea” invariably means Indian tea. “First of all, one should use Indian or Ceylonese tea. China tea has virtues which are not to be despised nowadays — it is economical, and one can drink it without milk — but there is not much stimulation on it. One does not feel wiser, braver or more optimistic after drinking it.” Rohit Khattar, managing director of Chor Bizarre, said along with “chai bazaar” the restaurant planned to launch a new menu next month which would include favourite dishes and recipes from its most regular diner, internationally-known Indian-born film producer Ismail Merchant. Mr J.S. Raju, director of the Tea Board of India, London, said the board planned to open another 24 “chai bazaars” in the UK by 2005 to popularise Indian authentic tea. He said on an average India exported about 20 million kg of tea worth Rs 200 crore annually to the UK. For “chai bazaar”, a special menu pairing teas with desserts has also been devised by master tea taster and connoisseur, Sanjay Guha of Duncan MacNeill Group or Assam Company Limited, the world’s oldest commercial plantation company, established in 1839. It includes a selection of delicious savouries, hot pakoras, kathi rolls and innovative naanwiches and Indian sweets, including “aam ki kheer” and “kulfi falooda”.
PTI |
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Hijacked boat returns to Cuba Havana, April 3 The boat left international waters late last night under Cuban Government escort, a US Coast Guard official in Miami said, speaking on condition of anonymity. It was unclear whether the hijackers had surrendered. FBI agents had waited nearby on a US Coast Guard cutter as Cuban authorities tried to persuade the hijackers to give up. The men had threatened to throw some of the passengers overboard if they did not get their way, the Cuban Government said in a written statement yesterday. As the boxy, flat-bottomed ferry struggled through choppy seas yesterday, the hijackers had radioed a command post of the Cuban Coast Guard to demand another boat and enough fuel to reach the USA, Cuba’s Prensa Latina news service said. The seizing of the vessel came a day after a Cuban passenger plane was hijacked to Key West, Florida, by a man who allegedly threatened to blow up the aircraft with two grenades that later turned out to be fake. Another Cuban plane was hijacked to Key West less than two weeks ago. The string of hijackings coincides with a new crackdown on dissidents in Cuba and rising tensions with the USA.
AP |
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Serbia-Montenegro inducted into Council of Europe Strasbourg (France), April 3 At a ceremony here, Mr Svetozvar Marovic, the country’s president, signed the European Convention on Human Rights and all the protocols guaranteeing property rights and free movement, the abolition of the death penalty and forbidding the mass expulsion of foreigners. The council’s parliamentary assembly gave the go-ahead last September for the accession of what was then the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, the rump remainder of the country after four former constituent republics became independent in the 1990s.
AFP |
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Consulate
bombed Istanbul, April 3 |
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