The Tribune, Chandigarh, India

Tuesday, April 29, 2003, Chandigarh, India

THE TRIBUNE SPECIALS

50 YEARS OF INDEPENDENCE

TERCENTENARY CELEBRATIONS

W O R L D

North Korea refuses to come clean on N-report
Seoul, April 28
North Korea today refused to come clean when South Korea asked it for a second time to say whether it had nuclear weapons and instead urged Seoul to step up economic cooperation, a pool report from Pyongyang said.

Kim Ryung-sung , a senior Cabinet Counsellor from North Korea, and South Korea’s Unification Minister Jeong Se-hyun toast at a dinner Kim Ryung-sung (R), a senior Cabinet Counsellor from North Korea, and South Korea’s Unification Minister Jeong Se-hyun (L) toast at a dinner in Pyongyang on Monday. — Reuters photo

Russia destroys few chemical weapons
Moscow, April 28
Russia has destroyed more than 400 metric tonnes of mustard gas at its newly opened chemical weapons destruction facility, meeting an international deadline to destroy 1 per cent of its chemical arsenal by the end of this month, a Kremlin representative said yesterday.

SARS worldwide toll rises to 332
Beijing, April 28
With 13 more deaths and 217 fresh cases of SARS in China and Hong Kong, 8,000 more persons were quarantined in Beijing today amid warning by the WHO that the epidemic appeared to be spreading rapidly in China but was on its way out in most affected countries.

Brazilian lifeguards hold up a live shark after capturing it at the Grumari beach in Rio de Janeiro on Friday. Brazilian authorities issued a shark alert after an attack on a young swimmer near the Rio's famed Copacabana beach, the first off one of the city's beaches in four years. Shark attacks are comparatively rare in Rio de Janeiro state, only 11 have been recorded in the past 30 years.
— Reuters

GLOBAL MONITOR

Mr John Manley, Canada's Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister, wears a handerkerchief to cover his head while watching Baisakhi celebrations in Misissaua, north-west of Toronto, on Sunday. Manley announced earlier this month that he would run for leadership of the Liberal Party of Canada to succeed retiring Prime Minister Jean Chretien.
— Reuters

EARLIER STORIES

	SARS toll continues to mount April 28, 2003
	Jiang meets Fernandes April 27, 2003
	US troops catch Turkish team April 26, 2003
	George for better ties with China April 25, 2003
	SARS claims 9 more lives in China April 24, 2003
	1,000 more to join hunt for WMDs April 23, 2003
	Saddam’s son-in-law surrenders April 22, 2003
	USA plans long-term access to Iraqi bases April 21, 2003
	12 more SARS deaths in Hong Kong April 20, 2003
	USA accused of ‘crime of century’ April 19, 2003

North Korea refuses to come clean on N-report

Seoul, April 28
North Korea today refused to come clean when South Korea asked it for a second time to say whether it had nuclear weapons and instead urged Seoul to step up economic cooperation, a pool report from Pyongyang said.

The Communist North and Capitalist South — divided by the world’s last cold war border, the heavily fortified demilitarised zone — were holding the second of three days of the Cabinet-level talks in Pyongyang that were primarily intended to discuss economic links.

US Administration sources said last week North Korea had told US Assistant Secretary of State James Kelly at talks in Beijing it already had atomic bombs and could make more because it had reprocessed thousands of spent nuclear fuel rods — both in violation of a 1994 US-North Korean pact.

The crisis has had an impact on South Korea’s already weakening economy. They won extended gains in a technical correction, but traders are still watching the North. Shares recouped early losses but sentiment remained fragile. South Korea tried yesterday to discuss the crisis. North Korea said only it had offered the USA a “bold proposal’’. The pool report said North Korea again stuck to its line that it would discuss the nuclear crisis only with the USA.

The North’s official KCNA news agency said North Korea had made a series of separate proposals yesterday to South Korea.

It did not mention the South’s demand for nuclear details.

It said the North had proposed the two sides should stop loudspeaker broadcasts across the DMZ, halt negative television coverage, agree on allowing commercial ships into the other’s waters and speed up existing projects such as cross-border rail and road links and an industrial centre in the North.

South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun has pledged to continue his predecessor Kim Dae-jung’s policy of engaging North Korea, but one official made clear it might not be at any price. It was not clear whether that tough language would translate into a halt or reduction in food and other aid to the North. Reuters

Russia destroys few chemical weapons

Moscow, April 28
Russia has destroyed more than 400 metric tonnes of mustard gas at its newly opened chemical weapons destruction facility, meeting an international deadline to destroy 1 per cent of its chemical arsenal by the end of this month, a Kremlin representative said yesterday.

Speaking at the destruction facility in the central Russian town of Gorny, Sergei Kiriyenko, Chairman of the State Commission on Chemical Disarmament, said the punctual elimination of the mustard gas “shows that our country is firmly fulfilling its obligations and testifies to the fact that Russian scientists can create technology not just on the world standard, but surpassing it.”

Russia committed itself in 1997 to destroying the stock pile, which at 40,000 metric tonnes is the world’s largest, within 10 years. However, the Kremlin says it lacks the funds to complete the programme on time and has appealed for increased international donations.

The Gorny plant was built with the aid of Germany and the European Union. The United States has produced the bulk of funding for another site under construction at Shchuchye, in the Ural Mountains region. However, it has frozen some money due to concerns that Russia has not contributed enough or made elimination of chemical weapons a high enough priority. AP

SARS worldwide toll rises to 332

Beijing, April 28
With 13 more deaths and 217 fresh cases of SARS in China and Hong Kong, 8,000 more persons were quarantined in Beijing today amid warning by the WHO that the epidemic appeared to be spreading rapidly in China but was on its way out in most affected countries.

Eight new fatalities were reported in China and five in Hong Kong while a woman died in Canada raising the worldwide toll from the killer flu to 332. The atypical pnuemonia has so far infected more than 5,000 people, since it first appeared in China’s Guangdong province seven months ago.

“It appears from the reports which we have from Hong Kong, Singapore, Toronto and Vietnam that the epidemic has peaked in those countries,” said WHO chief of communicable diseases, David Heyman in Bangkok.

He said these countries had fewer fresh infections indicating that the outbreak was contained there even as China continued to be a subject of concern.

According to figures released by the Chinese Health Ministry, the toll in mainland stood at 139 with Hong Kong following closely at 138. More than 3,600 confirmed cases are undergoing treatment in China and 847 sickened persons in the neighbouring Hong Kong, where a total of 710 persons have recovered and sent home.

With six SARS deaths being reported in Inner Mongolia, the province followed Beijing’s example and shut libraries, museums, cinemas and internet cafes to check the spread of the epidemic.

The government struggled to stem growing panic over the spread of the epidemic and the Ministry of Commerce ordered that enough commodities and medical supplies are available as the World Health Organisation (WHO) stressed cooperation from Beijing authorities in fighting SARS.

A total of 7,672 people had been quarantined and quarantine measures were enforced at a residential quarter of Renmin hospital, three dormitory buildings in the northern Jiaatono university and two dormitory buildings in the Beijing Science and Technology Research Institute.

The quarantine control was also taken in 24 designated SARS patient hospitals, and in the SARS patient reception areas of 29 general hospitals as well as the fever outpatient departments in 74 hospitals.

As the nation reeled under the SARS scare, Premier Wen said “I believe the Chinese people will be even more united and the Chinese nation will emerge stronger from the SARS disaster than ever.”

As of April 27, Beijing had 1,114 confirmed cases of SARS and 1,19 suspected cases. A total of 56 patients had died.

At the WHO’s request, the centre has provided WHO experts detailed data on SARS patients over the past two days. Agencies

USA detains Mayor of Baghdad

Baghdad, April 28
US forces, seeking to restore order to a shattered Iraq, arrested the self-appointed Mayor of Baghdad on Sunday for trying to run the city without their authority and whisked him out of the capital.

Mohammed Mohsen Zubaidi, a former exile who declared himself Mayor 10 days ago, was ''removed'' from Baghdad for obstructing efforts to get Iraqis back to work after the war that ousted Saddam Hussein, a U S military statement said.

In a sign of resentment facing U S troops in some quarters, a gunman ambushed two Humvee vehicles stopped in traffic in Baghdad and wounded four soldiers, one seriously. Reuters

GLOBAL MONITOR

Tim Eichert, 29, from Cologne, Germany, does a flip on his BMX as the public looks on during Rollerfest, a two-day rollerblading, skateboarding and BMX bikes festival, at the Pincio, overlooking Rome, on Sunday. In the background is St. Peter's Basilica.
— AP/PTI

RUSSIAN CAPSULE DOCKS WITH ISS
MOSCOW: The Soyuz TMA-2 space capsule carrying American astronaut Edward Lu and Russian cosmonaut Yuri Malenchenko docked on Monday with International Space Station (ISS) in a key step to replacing the three-man crew already on the ISS, space officials said. Lu and Malenchenko are replacing the trio of US astronauts Kenneth Bowersox and Donald Pettit who along with Russian cosmonaut Nikolai Budarin were stuck on the station after the Columbia Shuttle disaster. AP

DIANA’S LETTERS, CARD GO UP FOR AUCTION
GRAY: Eight letters and a Christmas card from Princess Diana will go on the auction block this week along with 300 other items from the estate of fashion editor Liz Tilberis. Liz Tilberis, who died of ovarian cancer in 1999 at the age of 51, often hobnobbed with celebrities like Diana through her work as editor of British Vogue and Harper’s Bazaar. AP

WHY OLD PERSONS SUFFER FROM DEAFNESS?
PARIS: Experiments with a batch of engineered mice have thrown up exciting genetic clues about why humans often suffer from worsening deafness as they get older. The evidence points to a rodent gene called Ink4d, which plays a role in sensory hair cells in the inner hear. The problem is that sensory hair cells do not regenerate once they have been lost. The cells carry on dividing until just after a child is born, and then the process abruptly stops. AFP

STOLEN PAINTINGS FOUND BEHIND TOILET
LONDON: The British police investigating the £ 1-million theft of three works by Van Gogh, Picasso and Gauguin on Monday found three paintings hidden behind a public toilet. The paintings were stolen from the Whitworth Art Gallery in Manchester over the weekend. Reuters