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Wednesday,
July 23, 2003, Chandigarh, India  
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Blair has
no regrets on Iraq war British Prime Minister Tony Blair speaks during an informal question and answer session at Tsinghua University in Beijing on Tuesday. — Reuters
photo Annan
seeks timetable for Iraqi sovereignty Desai is
Annan’s Adviser for summit
Tackle
Bhopal issue, Pallone asks Carbide |
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Change
rules for trials of terror suspects, USA urged Indian
missions in Afghanistan worry Pakistan Body of
UK Sikh millionaire's wife found
Indian
maid wins £ 40,000 in damages Idi Amin
dying unpunished, says rights body
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Blair has no regrets on Iraq war
Beijing, July 22 “It is better to be rid of Saddam Hussein,” Mr Blair told an audience of students at a Beijing university. Mr Blair, nearing the end of his Asian tour, was speaking a day after holding talks with Chinese leaders in an effort to heal strains in relations over the Iraq war, which Beijing opposed. The Prime Minister expressed confidence that coalition inspectors in Iraq would find evidence of programmes meant to develop weapons of mass destruction. “I have no doubts that Iraq was trying to develop these weapons,” Mr Blair said. The Prime Minister, whose characteristic wide grin was back on his face after a difficult start to his Asian tour, seemed pleased to take questions during the informal session at elite Tsinghua University. When a student asked whether he had any regrets about going to war, Mr Blair said, “I believe that no matter how difficult it was, it was the right thing to do. In terms of the security of the world and the suffering of the Iraqi people, it is better to be rid of Saddam Hussein.” One student asked Mr Blair how he felt when he heard of the suicide of military adviser David Kelly as the Prime Minister flew from Washington to Japan, and how he could regain his people’s trust. “This is a desperately sad time for the family of Dr Kelly,” Mr Blair said, the smile now gone from his face.
— AP |
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Annan seeks
timetable for Iraqi
sovereignty United Nations, July 22 “It is essential if the growing impatience in the country is to be stemmed,” the UN chief said in a new report presented to the Security Council today. The report lays out a blueprint for a full spectrum of activities where the United Nations can assist the reconstruction of Iraq. But, it makes clear that under its current council mandate, re-establishing law and order and administering the country are not among them — these being the sole responsibility of the US-run Coalition Provisional Authority. It enumerates the activities the United Nations will carry out this year in the areas of humanitarian assistance, facilitation of national dialogue and human rights, to be coordinated under a new UN Assistance Mission for Iraq, with a 300-member staff. “The challenge for the United Nations in Iraq is to find meaningful and effective ways to assist the Iraqi people in achieving their goals. Its aim is to help them participate in, and take ownership of, the definition of the policies and priorities that will shape the future of their country,” Mr Annan said.
— UNI |
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Desai is Annan’s
Adviser for summit United Nations, July 22 The WSIS is the first summit to deal with the information society, including critical issues regarding the use and dissemination of information, and communications technology in development programmes and policies. Mr Desai was the Secretary-General of the World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg last year. Before joining the United Nations, Mr Desai was secretary and Chief Economic Adviser in India’s Ministry of Finance.
— UNI |
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Tackle Bhopal issue, Pallone asks Carbide
Washington, July 22 Mr Pallone and his colleagues say Dow Chemical, which acquired Union Carbide Corporation in February 2001, has not yet addressed the liabilities it inherited and should immediately take steps towards reparations in Bhopal. “In an effort to restore basic human rights to the people of Bhopal, my colleague Dennis Kucinich (D-OH) and I are circulating a letter to the CEO of Dow Chemical asking that Dow take responsibility for the disaster it inherited in 1984,” the New Jersey Democrat said in a speech on the House floor. Pallone and Kucinich were joined in their letter to Dow Chemical Chairman and CEO William Stavropoulos by 16 of their colleagues in which they requested the company to: — ensure the appearance of a Union Carbide representative at the ongoing criminal case in Bhopal. — meet the demands of survivors for medical and economic rehabilitation. — clean up the contamination in and around the factory site and the poisoned groundwater, and provide alternative supplies of freshwater to the affected communities in the interim.
— UNI |
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Change rules for trials of terror suspects, USA urged
Washington, July 22 British lawyers might be members of the defence team, and a British officer might serve on the panel of three to seven officers, who would decide the defendants’ fate, a US official involved in the issue told The Washington Post. Because Guantanamo is not, technically, US territory — the USA obtained the area after the Spanish civil war under an “as-if-sovereign” title of indefinite duration — the normal rules for American trials do not apply there.
— PTI |
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Indian missions
in Afghanistan
worry Pakistan Islamabad, July 22 “India is establishing diplomatic offices in Afghanistan’s cities where their presence cannot be justified. We fear these Indian missions and consulate will serve purposes other than diplomacy”, Pakistan Interior Minister Makhdoom Faisal told reporters in Lahore yesterday. He said Islamabad had expressed to India its apprehension in this regard. The minister said the law and order situation in Afghanistan directly affected Pakistan, which was also a victim of terrorism. “We will continue the war on terror until there is no more terrorism in Pakistan”, the minister said. Asserting that Pakistan would not allow its territory to be used for terrorism, he said the government had asked neighbouring countries, including Iran, Afghanistan and India, to do the same.
— PTI |
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Body of UK Sikh millionaire's wife found London, July 22 The body of Amarjit Chohan's wife was found floating in the sea off the Dorset Coast, leading to the launch of a second murder investigation, a Metropolitan Police spokeswoman said. Nancy Chohan's body was discovered last Tuesday but details have only just been released by the police. Her husband's body was found badly decomposed near Bournemouth Pier on April 22. Now the hunt will be on for the couple's baby sons — 19-month-old Devinder and four-month-old Ravinder — and Mr Chohan's mother-in-law Charanjit Kaur
(51). Chohan, who ran a fruit and vegetable business in Southall, and his family had disappeared from their home in Hounslow in February.
— UNI |
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Indian maid wins £ 40,000 in damages
London, July 22 An advice centre for domestic workers, Kalayaan, took up Girija Sujatha’s case. The tribunal was told that Annabelle Manwaring, a director with the Leo Burnett advertising agency in Chelsea, had brought Sujatha from India where she used to work for Mrs Manwaring’s great aunt. Her husband, Michael, worked as a management consultant and the couple had a six-figure income and live in a six-bedroom house in Highgate, London. Sujatha began work at 7 am and went on until at least 9.30 pm, seven days a week. She cooked, cleaned and cared for the couple and their four daughters, aged from five to 17. The tribunal was told that Sujatha rarely received the full amount of her wages. Sujatha had come to London in 1998 and after getting the work permit, she was entitled to the minimum wage (£ 4.50 per hour), which came into force in 1999. But she was paid less than £ 1 per hour. Mrs Manwaring claimed in her defence that the maid was treated like a family member leaving no obligation to pay the full rate. But the tribunal found that Sujatha was like a slave and rarely included in the family’s activities. She told the court: “I had to work for long hours and I felt very lonely. I carried on working there because I didn’t know what to do.”
— UNI |
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Idi Amin dying unpunished,
says rights body New York, July 22 Amin, whose regime was responsible for widespread murder and torture and the wholesale exile of his country’s Asian community, is in a critical condition in a hospital in Saudi Arabia. He is 78 years old and has lived in exile, mostly in Saudi Arabia, since 1979. “We regret that Idi Amin is dying without being prosecuted”, said Mr Reed Brody, HRW director of special prosecutions. At least 10,000 Ugandans were killed during his regime.
— PTI |
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Beijing, July 22
Britain's police has found the
body of the wife of a Sikh millionaire from sea, three months after
discovering the corpse of her husband in a baffling case of a mystery
family disappearance.
Video
