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Pak promises cautious consideration to offer Three Israeli soldiers killed in Gaza $ 9.25 billion loan for Iraq
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5 cops accused of racism quit
Tharoor for freedom of Net WMD resolution discussed First Divali in White House Indian cabbie gets award for honesty Pak accepts pipeline offer Pak beauty to take part in pageant EU rights prize for Annan UK’s first woman
law lord
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Pak promises cautious consideration to offer Islamabad, October 24 “We have noted the proposals and each of these proposals will have to be considered very seriously and very cautiously,” Pakistan Foreign Office spokesman Masood Khan told the BBC in an interview. “We did not demonstrate any negative reaction,” he said, adding that the proposals suggested talks between India and Pakistan. Mr Khan said the Indian government insisted on holding talks and consultations only on these proposals. “There should be a composite dialogue and both countries must discuss all matters”, he said. Mr Khan said when the Indian Prime Minister made the earlier offer of talks, Pakistan made several offers in response to his proposals. On India’s proposals to enhance people-to-people contacts, he said, “We do favour the increase in these contacts and we also want to make efforts for that.” WASHINGTON: Noting that there was no evidence of Islamabad stopping cross-border terrorism in Kashmir, a US Congressional body described the India-Pakistan peace initiative as moribund. In an update of its report on the two countries, the Congressional Research Studies said despite Pakistan’s assertion that it has arrested those responsible for terrorism and claim to had broken the Al-Qaida network, the international terrorist outfit’s and Taliban fugitives were numerous in the country and might have re-established their organisations in Karachi and Peshawar. Under continuous international pressure to stop infiltration across the Line of Control in Jammu and Kashmir, Islamabad promised US Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage that all such movements would cease.
— PTI |
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Three Israeli soldiers killed in Gaza Gaza, October 24 The attack by Islamic Jihad and Hamas followed a meeting in Syria at which they pledged tighter cooperation in the three-year-old Palestinian uprising against Israeli occupation. The Israeli army said a militant armed with an assault rifle and grenades infiltrated the heavily guarded Netzarim settlement before dawn and opened fire before soldiers shot him dead. It said two of the dead were women and two other soldiers were wounded, including a woman who was seriously hurt. Another militant also appeared to have taken part but did not enter the settlement and escaped into the darkness. “At the moment it is a night of very thick fog, and you can’t see even one metre ahead. The terrorists exploit a night like this for very intense activity,” Major General Dan Harel told reporters at the scene. The attack was the latest blow to the stalled U S-backed peace ‘’road map’’ after Israel killed 12 Palestinians, including militants and civilians, in air raids on Monday and Palestinian gunmen killed three Israeli soldiers in an ambush on Sunday. Hamas said the man killed today was one its members and that he carried out the attack with a member of Islamic Jihad, the other main movement behind attacks on Israelis. The attack followed a meeting of the two groups’ leaders in Syria this week at which they decided to strengthen cooperation in battling “Zionist aggression against the Palestinian people.”
— Reuters |
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$ 9.25 billion loan for Iraq Madrid, October 24 As more than 70 donor nations outlined their own pledges here, World Bank president James Wolfensohn said the international community had to rebuild a “depressed” society that was “really on its back” and said the organisation would pledge loans of up to five billion dollars over the next five years. The IMF weighed in with a package worth up to a maximum $ 4.25 billion over a three-year period. Saudi Arabia today pledged $ one billion of aid to Iraq up until 2007.
— AFP |
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5 cops accused of racism quit London, October 24 PC Rob Pulling, one of eight officers featured in BBC1’s ‘The Secret Policeman’, broadcast last night, resigned from North Wales police today as a top officer in his force admitted having felt “physically sick” watching the film. All five officers had earlier been suspended over allegations of racist behaviour captured on secret cameras for the hour-long documentary. Besides Pulling, the other officers who resigned were Carl Jones, Tony Lewin and Adrian Harrison, of Greater Manchester police, and Steve Salkeld of the Cheshire force. In the report on the CPS, considered the biggest survey ever undertaken, nearly 13,000 cases were scrutinised by external investigators for evidence of sexual and racial discrimination. The report stated that Asians were more likely to be prosecuted on weaker evidence than whites, and cases against Blacks were more likely to succeed than those with white defendants. The study led by Prof Gus John, a key adviser of Home Secretary David Blunkett on race, found evidence that at virtually every stage of the prosecution process Asian and Black people appeared to suffer discrimination. Gus John has called for major changes in the CPS. His study found that prosecutors were more likely to object to Black suspects being given bail, and tended to send white suspects in racially motivated crimes to magistrates courts, lessening the severity of the sentences they may receive. Worse is the finding that cases involving Asian defendants were more likely to fail than those involving white suspects, suggesting weaker cases were being brought by prosecutors. The study also found the CPS tended more to accept a plea bargain in which a defendant pleaded guilty in return for a lower sentence and avoiding a full-scale trial, for white than black and Asian suspects. The Attorney-General Lord Goldsmith had promised to implement the main proposal that specialist prosecutors in each CPS area would oversee racist and religiously motivated crimes. He also promised that all faults identified in the study would be set right. Trevor Phillips, chairman of the Commission for Racial Equality, said “The CPS has now significant changes to make to its policy and practices in this area.”
— PTI |
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Tharoor for freedom of Net United Nations, Oct 24 Under secretary-General for Communications and Public Information Shashi Tharoor told the General Assembly Economic and Financial Committee in New York yesterday it was only logical that governments give the Internet the same boundaries as more traditional media. He said it would be a mistake when regulating the Internet to extend any restrictions beyond the reasonable protections for privacy and against abuse by criminals and terrorist outfits. “These measures fall under national penal law, and are not — in a national context — viewed as a threat to freedom of speech,” he said in an address ahead of the World Summit on the Information Society. The summit will take place in two phases — the first will be held from December 10-12 in Geneva, and the second is scheduled for November 16-18, 2005 in Tunis.
— UNI |
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WMD resolution discussed United Nations, October 24 Diplomats said the five veto-wielding council members, the USA, Russia, China, Britain and France, met yesterday to discuss the Russian text and US ideas. If terrorists were to obtain weapons of mass destruction, Mr Bush warned, it would “bring sudden disaster and suffering on a scale we can scarcely imagine.” — AP
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First Divali in White House Washington, October 24 Rowe, who is often referred to as the President’s “Prime Minister”, lighted the symbolic brass lamp inaugurating the festivities last evening in which some 70 select members of the Indian-American community were invited. Underscoring the spirit and story of Divali, Rowe, after conveying the personal greetings of President Bush, said it was appropriate that the universal values of the festival were being observed in the Indian Treaty Room. Indian Americans are upbeat over the
celebrations, which analysts say is just another sign of the growing clout of the community in Washington power circles and the burgeoning “special connection” between the two countries. Dr Sudhir M Parikh, Vice-President of the Indian American Forum for Political Education, said: “One of our dreams came true as the White House, for the first time, marked Divali.
— PTI |
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Indian cabbie gets award for honesty New York, October 24 Hussain has won him appreciation not only from the police, who plan to nominate him for an award but also the designer himself, who gave Hussain an undisclosed monetary award and sapphire earrings. Cab driver Mohammed Hussain opened the trunk of his cab on Sunday morning and found a bag filled with expensive jewellery. The bag belonged to Camargo, whom he had dropped off at a downtown hotel the day before. He did not open it right away, but took it to his apartment and opened it only next morning. The police said Hussain then e-mailed the company regarding the jewellery and informed the police too. Hussain, who came to the USA from India around two-and-a-half years ago, has been driving a cab for a year. After 26-year old Hussain returned the 42 pieces of ornate jewellery on Wednesday, he received from Camargo an undisclosed monetary award and a pair of Sapphire earrings. Jewellery designer Anthony Camargo is co-owner of Anthony-Nak Fine Jewellery in Austin, Texas. Camargos range from J.Lo to First Lady Laura Bush, Britney Spears and Cher. He somehow left the jewels in a taxi while in town on a sales call.
—PTI |
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Pak accepts pipeline offer
Islamabad, October 24 Prime Minister Zafarullah Khan Jamali made the pledge during a three-day visit to Tehran, a senior Petroleum Ministry official said today on condition of anonymity. But Mr Jamali said the project would still go ahead if India declined to be involved. “The gas pipeline was to go to India via Pakistan. Since India is hesitating, Iran has offered to lay a gas pipeline between Pakistan and Iran, and we have accepted it,” Mr Jamali told a news conference after returning late yesterday. India remains reluctant to leave itself dependent on Pakistan to ensure a secure supply of a vital resource, fearing the flow of gas could be severed during any escalation of hostilities. But the latest discussion, reviving a proposal first raised in 1996, comes at a time when India and Pakistan are taking steps to improve relations and expand contacts between their citizens.
— AP |
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Pak beauty to take part in pageant Islamabad, October 24 Announcing this, Naomi Alseworth of the Miss Earth Pakistan Organisation said “Natasha Newcombe, Miss Pakistan 2003, is unable to attend Miss Earth this year as she has her exams in November,” Daily Times reported. Ghassan, Miss Pakistan, 2002, who could not represent the country last year, was selected in Natasha’s place, the daily quoted Alseworth as saying. The 18-year-old could not participate last year due to the government’s declaration that no participant from the country could take part in an international beauty pageant. Now that she is allowed to represent Pakistan, Ghassan said “the most important thing to me is to bring my country to spotlight and promote awareness of environment issues among the participating countries.” |
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EU rights prize for Annan Strasbourg, October 24 Special mention was given to Sergio Vieira de Mello, the UN’s special representative for Iraq who was killed in a bomb attack in Baghdad in August. The prize was given collectively to Annan and UN staff, “in special memory of Sergio Vieira de Mello and many other UN officials who have lost their lives in carrying out their work for peace in the world”, the official said.
— AFP |
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UK’s first woman
law lord London, October 24 Her appointment comes amid government moves to end the white, male, public school stranglehold on the judiciary. The USA, Canada, Australia and New Zealand all have women judges in their highest courts.
— PTI |
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