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US leaders back new Georgian leaders Give up free-Tibet cause, Wen asks Pak freezes accounts of banned groups |
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Pak flays Blair’s remark on Kashmir
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Indian sues varsity for racial bias India gets
$ 400m ADB loan
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US leaders back new Georgian leaders Washington backed the new interim president, outgoing Parliament speaker Nino Burdzhanadze, to promote fresh elections in the impoverished former Soviet republic after Shevardnadze bowed to mass protests over alleged vote-rigging and resigned. “The United States and the international community stand ready to support the new government in holding free and fair parliamentary elections in the future,” said U S State Department spokesman Richard Boucher, adding US Secretary of State Colin Powell had called Burdzhanadze to offer support. Powell also spoke to Shevardnadze and Boucher praised the former Soviet foreign minister - a hero in the West when he helped oversee the end of the Cold War - for resigning after 11 years in power “in the best interests of (Georgia’s) people”. Burdzhanadze urged Georgians to work to restore order quickly in the Caucasus mountain state, anxiously watched in the West because a pipeline is being built through its territory to carry Caspian oil to the Mediterranean Sea. “From tomorrow order and stability should be restored in the country and I appeal to all law enforcement agencies to return to a normal rhythm of work. And I appeal to our citizens to help them,” Burdzhanadze said in a television address yesterday. Eduard Shevardnadze would be welcome to live in Germany, the German government has said. The statement followed speculation that Shevardnadze might seek exile in Germany, set off by media reports that associates had bought a villa for him in the southern spa town of Baden-Baden. “Should Eduard Shevardnadze decide that he wants to come to Germany, he would be welcome here, not least because of his service in the cause of German reunification,” government spokesman Bela Anda said. Shevardnadze helped negotiate Germany’s peaceful reunification as Soviet foreign minister in 1990 after the Berlin Wall fell and communist rule collapsed in then East Germany. —
Reuters, AP |
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Give up free-Tibet cause, Wen asks Dalai Lama Beijing, November 24 “So long as the Dalai Lama genuinely abandons his position on seeking Tibetan independence and publicly recognises Tibet and Taiwan as inalienable parts of Chinese territory, contacts and discussions between him and the central government can’t resume,” Wen told the Washington Post in an interview prior to his first official visit to the U.S.A. next month. “Regrettably, the Dalai Lama has not genuinely given up his position of Tibet independence and has not given up the separatist activities aimed at splitting the motherland. He also has not recognised that Taiwan is an inalienable part of Chinese territory,” Wen, who would be visiting Washington in the first week of December, said. —
PTI |
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Pak freezes accounts of banned groups Islamabad, November 24 Following the ban last week, the Pakistani Finance Ministry had been informed about the decision to freeze bank accounts under provisions of the Anti-Terrorism Act, while the provincial governments had been directed to check the printing of any publication of the banned terror groups, Chairman of the Interior Ministry’s national crisis management cell Brigadier Javed Cheema said. The groups which were banned recently were the renamed versions of the groups that were banned last year, including Islami Tehrik-i-Pakistan (formerly Tehrik-i-Jafaria, Pakistan), Millat-i-Islamia Pakistan (formerly Sipah-i-Sahaba, Pakistan), Khuddam-ul-Islam (formerly Jaish-i-Mohammad), Jamiat-ul-Ansar, Hizb-ul-Tehrir and Jamaat-ul-Furqan. —
PTI |
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Pak flays Blair’s remark on Kashmir Islamabad, November 24 Such statements caused “palpable anger in Pakistan and Kashmir,” Pakistan Foreign Office spokesman Masood Khan said reacting to Blair’s remarks. “People had not forgotten the role of the British government in blocking the right of self-determination of the people of Jammu and Kashmir,” Khan told reporters at a weekly briefing here. Reiterating Pakistan’s allegations of human rights violations in Kashmir, Khan said “the stark reality is that what is happening in Kashmir is not terrorism, but a result of human rights violations.” —
PTI |
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Synthetic vaccine for children Havana, November 24 The vaccine protects against haemophilus influenzae type b, a bacteria that causes upper respiratory infections, mainly in children up to five years of age. The disease is a leading cause of meningitis, an infection of the brain and spinalcord coverings that can cause brain damage, deafness or death. The research on the new vaccine, which has already been tested and put into production in Cuba, will be presented on Wednesday to experts from the world over at a biotechnology congress in Havana. This is the first vaccine for humans made with a chemically produced antigen, Cuba says. The available, conventional vaccine is made using a difficult and more costly process of growing antigens in a bacterial culture. “It took us six years,” said Dr Vicente Verez, head of the University of Havana’s Synthetic Antigens Laboratory. “But what could be more precious for society than to have healthy two-month-old babies,” he said. Poor nations that depend on multinational pharmaceutical companies for the vaccine — now costing $ 3 a dose — will now have a less expensive alternative, Verez said. The disease has been almost erased in the USA, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control said. But it remains a problem in developing countries where the cost of the vaccine has been a barrier to widespread immunization. Clinical trials conducted in the central Cuban province of Camaguey, first on adult volunteers, then on four-year-old children and finally on babies, showed a 99.7 per cent success rate in developing the required antibodies. —
Reuters |
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Indian sues varsity for racial bias New York, November 24 This is the second such lawsuit filed against the university, based in Manhattan, in less than a year. “I hope that this case helps publicise the blatant racial discrimination,” Mr Raghavendra, an Indian-American, said. Mr Raghavendra, filed the lawsuit after he was rejected a promotion because of “racially motivated reasons”. The lawsuit was filed in the New York State Supreme Court against William Scott, the deputy vice president of IRE, Karen Fry, the assistant vice president of IRE, and the university’s board of trustees. Mr Raghavendra sought “punitive damages and equitable relief”. Mr Raghavendra alleged, “they practice blatant racial discrimination and use various deceptive tactics to keep out blacks and other dark-skinned minorities from higher-paying managerial and executive positions of power.” After working at IRE for a year, he sought promotion as finance/accounting manager in September 2002. He claimed by the time he was interviewed, the position had been filled by one Jennifer Fabrizio, a white woman who is younger to him. He dubbed the interview with Mr Fry as a “joke and fake” as he believed that Ms Fabrizio had already been hired. Mr Raghavendra, who has about two decades of professional experience and holds two postgraduate degrees, pointed out that Ms Fabrizio had far less experience and qualification. The plaintiff, who graduated from the Indian Institute of Technology, Chennai, 25 years ago, said no African Americans (blacks) occupies a position higher than his. He claimed when he met Mr Scott, the latter made some race-related remarks and alluded that Raghavendra looked like a potential terrorist. Mr Raghavendra said he has no office of his own and shared the space with two others. He claimed all white officers, even those in lower positions, have comfortable office space and separate mailboxes. According to news reports, Mr Scott said Raghavendra is relatively a new employee, and other employees also share office space and mailboxes and it “has nothing to do with race.” Referring to other allegations, Mr Scott said they were “bizarre and silly beyond belief”. The petitioner said he would like to continue at Columbia after the issue was settled. Katherine Moore, a senior public affairs officer at Columbia, told reporters that she would not comment on pending litigation. “Columbia University is committed to equal opportunity and affirmative action in all matters related to employment,” she said. —
UNI |
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India gets
$ 400m ADB loan Manila, November 24 The project will build 11,000 kms of all-weather roads in the two states and set up management systems for them, an ADB statement said. The loan matures in 25 years, with interest determined in accordance with ADB’s LIBOR-based lending facility. The Bank has also approved $187 million in loans and grants to Pakistan for a road repair project that supports reconstruction in neighbouring Afghanistan. The project will improve and widen 247 km of the national highway from Kalat to Quetta and between Quetta and Chamman, forming part of the Central Asia-Afghanistan-Pakistan transport corridor through Baluchistan, Pakistan’s poorest province. —
AFP |
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ZTbilisi, November 24