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North
Korea ready to abolish
Macedonian
President killed in plane crash USA
questions Pervez’s power Pak
silent on reasons for shifting
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New UN
High Commissioner for Human Rights United Nations, February 26 The General Assembly has ratified the appointment of Ms Louise Arbour, a Canadian Supreme Court Justice and ex-prosecutor for UN war crimes tribunals for the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda, as the new UN High Commissioner for Human Rights.
Israeli
forces kill two Palestinian protesters
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North Korea ready to abolish N-programme Beijing, February 26 The brief, somewhat cryptic report was carried by the English-language wire of China’s Xinhua News Agency, the official voice of its government. It cited Alexander Losyukov, head of the Russian delegation and his country’s Deputy Foreign Minister. “The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea shows ‘readiness’ to abolish nuclear weapon programme while retaining nuclear programme for peaceful purpose,” Xinhua said, using the official name for the North. Minutes later, Tang Jiaxuan, a state councilor and former Chinese Foreign Minister, issued a statement saying the six-party talks had “entered a pivotal phase of discussing abolishing nuclear programmes, safeguarding security and economic cooperation.” He was quoted by Xinhua. The announcement came during a second round of Beijing-based six-party talks on the North’s nuclear programme. Participating in the talks are the Koreas, the USA, China, Russia and Japan.
— AP AFP adds: North Korea was today offered energy aid in return for freezing and dismantling its nuclear weapons programmes as tentative steps were taken to bring the Stalinist state in from the cold. The first step in the process of making North Korea a non-nuclear nation was proposed by China, Russia and South Korea on the second day of six-country talks aimed at ending a 16-month impasse over Pyongyang’s weapons programmes. “Russia and China, together with us, agree to join the energy aid,” said South Korea’s chief negotiator Lee Soo-Hyuck. “The USA and Japan expressed their understanding and support for this. |
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Macedonian President killed in plane crash Skopje (Macedonia), February 26 Vlatko Djordjev, a spokesman for Trajkovski’s party, VMRO, DPMNE, said he was told by party headquarters in Skopje that the 47-year-old President was killed in the crash. The Macedonian government aircraft, carrying Trajkovski and several other officials to the conference in the western Bosnian city of Mostar, crashed near the Bosnian village of Bitonja shortly after 8 a.m. (1230 IST), the official told AP, speaking on condition of anonymity. The Bosnian police said it found wreckage near the village about 80 km south of Sarajevo. There was no immediate word on survivors. Macedonia was to formally submit its application for eventual membership in the European Union today in Ireland, but cancelled the presentation and called its delegation back from Dublin, officials said. Trajkovski studied theology in the USA, where he gave up communism and converted from Orthodox Christianity. He is survived by his wife and their son and daughter.
— AP |
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USA questions Pervez’s power Washington, February 26 In its annual report on human rights released yesterday, the US State Department doubts the independence of the Pakistani Supreme Court which sanctioned Musharraf’s bloodless coup against the elected government of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif in 1999 and the functioning of the court since. The report notes four months after General Musharraf overthrew the Sharif government, the Supreme Court sanctioned the coup but asked him to hold a referendum. Four months after the referendum, President Musharraf transferred substantial executive power from the Prime Minister to the previously symbolic presidency. The Supreme Court, said the report, demonstrated “a limited degree of independence” but “the overall credibility of the judiciary remained low.” The report said the democracy in India was “long-standing” but “flawed” with allegations of corruption influencing court decisions, violence in some elections and restrictions on religious and academic freedom. It said tension between Hindus on the one hand and Muslims and Christians on the other remained a challenge to India’s secular formation. The report noted that the BJP was “a Hindu nationalist political party with links to Hindu extremist groups that were implicated in violent acts against Christians and Muslims.” However, it added, “the BJP is an independent political party and the degree of RSS influence over its policy-making was not clear.”
— PTI |
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Pak silent on reasons for shifting Pearl’s killer Karachi, February 26 “I have asked from the senior government quarters who said the matter is confidential and cannot be divulged,” state Attorney Anwar Mansoor Khan, told a two-judge Sindh High Court Bench. Ahmed Saeed Sheikh Omar, who previously was in a prison in southern Hyderabad, was flown to Rawalpindi’s Adiala Jail last month. Defence lawyer Abdul Waheed Katpar has challenged the move saying that under the country’s Prisoners Act, no inmate can be shifted from one province to another without the President’s order. The court adjourned the proceedings till March 18. However, Khan indicated that Omar could be shifted back to a jail in Sindh province before the next hearing.
— AFP |
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UK agents spied on Annan, says ex-Secy London, February 26 Ms Clare Short, who resigned as International Development Secretary following the campaign to topple Saddam Hussein, said she had read transcripts of annan’s conversations. “The UK in this time was also getting, spying on Kofi Annan’s office and getting reports from him about what was going on,” she said in an interview with the British Broadcasting Corp (BBC) Radio. Mr Blair’s office had no immediate reaction to Ms Short’s claims. When asked to clarify her comments, Ms Short repeated her allegation. “I know, I have seen transcripts of kofi annan’s conversations. In fact, I have had conversations with Kofi in the run-up to war, thinking ‘Oh dear, there will be a transcript of this and people will see what he and I are saying,” she said. Asked explicitly whether British spies had been instructed to carry out operations within the United Nations on people such as Kofi Annan, she said: “Yes, absolutely.” Ms Short’s comments came as she was interviewed about the decision made yesterday to drop legal proceedings against a former intelligence employee who leaked a confidential memo raising concerns about spying in the United Nations.
— AP |
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New UN High Commissioner for Human Rights United Nations, February 26 She replaces Brazil’s Sergio Vieira de Mello, who was killed in a terrorist attack on the UN’s Baghdad headquarters in August. Ms Arbour, 57, is expected to start her four-year term on the Geneva-based post after she retires from the Canadian Supreme Court in three months. She was the Chief Prosecutor for the International Criminal Tribunals for Rwanda
(ICTR) and for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) from October 1996 to September 1999.
— UNI |
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Cafe blast kills 15 in Siberia Moscow, February 26 It was not clear what caused the blast in the city of Chita, about 4,500 km (2,800 miles) east of Moscow and near Russia’s borders with Mongolia and China. Emergency workers were at the scene. “Fifteen persons were killed and 17 injured,’’ a ministry spokeswoman said. The building was completely destroyed.
— Reuters |
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Israeli forces kill two Palestinian protesters Ramallah (West Bank), February 26 Thousands of Palestinians were demonstrating against the barrier today at the villages of Beit Surik and Bidou.Stone-throwing youths managed initially to push back troops in a jeep and bulldozers who had come to prepare the ground to put up fencing, witnesses said. However, reinforcements were brought in and the forces fired live ammunition at the demonstrators, witnesses said.
— AP |
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Skopje (Macedonia), February
26
