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French Senate nod to ban on insignia India seeks Russian aid for more N-reactors Shias march for attack victims Musharraf
knew more on nuclear scandal: expert
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Edwards ends race to White House
Maoists bomb 3 buildings Mitchell replaces Eisner as Disney chief
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French Senate nod to ban on insignia Paris, March 4 The senators voted 276 to 20 yesterday, just over three weeks after the lower house of parliament agreed to the Bill. The Conservative government had pushed on with the proposed law to outlaw Islamic headscarves and other religious insignia in schools despite demonstrations by angry Muslims decrying “discrimination” against them. Education Minister Luc Ferry welcomed the vote, saying debates in the run-up had been of “exceptional quality”. Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin told the senators before the vote that the law did not aim to discriminate against religions but to “send a powerful and quick signal”. “Our vision of secularism is not opposed to religions. Everybody has the right to express his faith as long as he respects the laws of the Republic inside the Republic’s schools.” But he added “we do not feel or claim to believe that all’s been settled with this Bill.” Nearly 70 per cent of the French people back the new law, according to the polls, believing it upholds France’s version of secularism, which calls for a strict separation of state and religion in public institutions. In line with recommendations from a committee set up by President Jacques Chirac, the law prohibits Muslim headscarves, Jewish skullcaps, large Christian crosses and other conspicuous religious ornamentation in state schools.
— AFP |
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India seeks Russian aid for more N-reactors Moscow, March 4 In an interview, he said India was interested in building two reactors in addition to the two being constructed at Kudankulam with Russian assistance. “India is interested in the construction by Russia of still another two such blocks within the framework of the programme to increase nuclear energy production to 20 million KW by 2020,” Mr Asmolov said, adding that India, as an interested party should be more active in negotiations with the IAEA on the non-proliferation of nuclear technologies. “Russia is ready to realise these projects. But India, as the most interested side, should be more active in negotiations with the IAEA on the non-proliferation of nuclear technologies,” said Mr Asmolov, who participated in the session of the coordinating committee on the construction at Kudankulam.
— UNI |
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Shias march for attack victims
Quetta, March 4 Shia leaders had earlier delayed the funerals of 32 of those killed in Tuesday's massacre, demanding the resignations of the provincial police chief and other officials for failing to prevent the attack despite heavy nationwide security. Witnesses said about 20,000 Shias took part in the funeral processions, chanting anti-government slogans. "Down with incompetent administration! Down with the provincial government!" marchers shouted, many of them sobbing with rage and grief. "We salute those who laid down their lives!" Shia cleric Jan Ali Shah Kazmi said those killed died not just in shooting by "terrorists" but also in police gunfire. "We demand the immediate arrest of policemen responsible for shooting innocent people," he said. "We also demand the lifting of the curfew in Shia neighbourhoods." Under Islam, a body should normally buried before the next sunset but this can be delayed in Pakistan to allow time for relatives to attend the funeral. Authorities imposed an all-day curfew in the city of 400,000 people after Shias ran riot, burning shops and vehicles following Tuesday's massacre. Police and Shia leaders blamed the attack on the outlawed Sunni Muslim group Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, perhaps the most feared of Pakistani's underground militant groups. It has links to Osama bin Laden's Al Qaida network. The attack coincided with bomb blasts that killed at least 169 Shias in Iraq and which U.S. officials linked to Al Qaida. Pakistani officials have said it would be premature to link those attacks with Quetta. Mohammed Riaz Khan, a deputy inspector general of police, said the government would investigate whether any people were killed by security men. Hundreds of soldiers and paramilitary troops continued to patrol the city today as the curfew continued to be enforced in many neighbourhoods. It was Pakistan's worst sectarian violence since a July suicide attack on a Shia mosque in Quetta killed at least 57. Allama Yaqoob Tawasli, the leading Shias cleric in Quetta, blamed militants opposed to President Pervez Musharraf and his support for the US-led "war on terror". General Musharraf narrowly survived two assassination attempts in December blamed on militants and which he linked to Al Qaida. He has recently stepped up the hunt for militants from the group, including its leader Osama bin Laden. About 15 percent of overwhelmingly Sunni Muslim Pakistan's 150 million people are Shias. The Quetta attack has raised fears of an intensification of tit-for-tat sectarian killings that could considerably add to General Musharraf's problems. |
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Mass burials begin Quetta, March 4 At least 47 persons, including six policemen, died after gunmen fired and threw grenades at an emotionally-charged procession of Muslims from the Shia minority on Tuesday. The burials in Quetta were delayed by a day because Shia leaders demanded the authorities first release Shia youths arrested over the rioting and that they suspend security officials for failing to protect the Ashura procession. “We have decided to go ahead with the mass funerals today,” local Shia leader Jawad Esar told reporters.
— AFP |
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Musharraf knew more on nuclear scandal: expert Washington, March 4 This was the view expressed by Arnaud de Borchgrave in an article in the Washington Times. “If President Musharraf can pardon Mr Khan then why can’t he pardon Pakistan’s two most important political leaders — Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif both former Prime Ministers — who are living in exile and are still the recognised heads of Pakistan’s two principal political parties? Borchgrave asks. Describing Khan as the only proliferator of weapons of mass destruction the world has known since the advent of the atomic age in 1945, Borchgrave further goes on to say that by selling his country’s nuclear secrets for profit to North Korea, Iran and Libya, “his motives were also hybrid — both greed and creed”. “His Islamist fundamentalist ideology led him to believe it was within his power to make the invincible US vincible,” Borchgrave says of Khan, whom he describes as being “only a whisker below Mohammad Ali Jinnah, founder of Pakistani state”. Describing Mr Khan’s public acceptance of his participation in the scam as a “carefully rehearsed charade”, Borchgrave believes it “is inconceivable that the all-powerful Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) spy agency wasn’t aware of Mr Khan’s six trips to North Korea.” What is more than likely is that the ISI knew about Mr Khan’s nuclear rackets but didn’t tell President Musharraf because of the Pakistani leader’s close rapport with US President Bush. President Musharraf claims that the first specific details of Mr Khan’s global operations came from US Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage and General John Abizaid, head of the US Central Command, when they called on him last October. It is inconceivable that Khan for three decades, could have indulged in such extensive nuclear proliferation without the knowledge and acquiescence of the ISI and the military high command.
— ANI |
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Kerry soft on terrorism, says Bush Los Angeles, March 4 “Since John Kerry has been in Washington, he has taken both sides on every single issue,” Mr Bush said of the Senator from Massachusetts who emerged as the evident Democratic Presidential candidate after a near-sweep of Tuesday’s 10 primary elections. Kerry has been a US Senator since 1984. Mr Bush also attacked Kerry on the issue shaping up as a major plank in his campaign platform — the war on terrorism. “Some are skeptical that the war on terror is a war at all,” he told a Republican fundraiser yesterday. “My opponent says that the war on terror is far less a military operation and far more an intelligence gathering, law enforcement operation. I disagree. “Our nation followed this approach after the World Trade Center was bombed in 1993. The matter was handled in the courts and thought by some to be settled. But the terrorists were still training in Afghanistan, plotting against our nation and drawing out more ambitious plans,” said Mr Bush. “After the chaos and carnage of September 11, it was not enough to serve our enemies with legal papers,” he said. Mr Bush’s comments constituted his first frontal assault on Kerry since the Senator’s candidacy became certain. “I am ready for this campaign,” he said. “I look forward to state the alternative squarely for the American people. We will win on November 2.”
— AFP |
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Edwards ends race to White House Raleigh, March 4 “Today, I’ve decided to suspend my campaign for the presidency of the USA,” Edwards told a crowd of supporters in a speech at Raleigh’s Broughton High School which his two oldest children also attended. Edwards (50), quit the race after failing to halt Kerry’s advance in 10 crucial ‘Super Tuesday’ Democratic election contests. A US senator representing North Carolina, Edwards was the last serious obstacle blocking Kerry from locking up their party’s nomination to challenge Republican incumbent George W. Bush in the November election. He surprised most political analysts by besting several better-known Democratic rivals, won the primary in his native South Carolina and racked up strong second-place finishes in contests in Iowa, Wisconsin, and Georgia. But he was unable to hold his own against the juggernaut Kerry Campaign, which steamrolled to victory, continued victories in the vast majority of contests and which has amassed an almost insurmountable lead in delegates to this summer’s Democratic nominating convention.
— AFP |
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Hutton astonished by reaction to report
London, March 4 Judge Lord Hutton was convinced he drew up a report which was even-handed in criticising both the British Broadcasting Corporation and the defence ministry for failing to provide a “duty of care” to scientist David Kelly, according to a daily. “Lord Hutton is deeply unhappy about how his report has been treated, how it was rubbished. He genuinely thought it would put an end to speculation. You may think it’s naive for anyone to think that, but it’s what he says,” one senior member of parliament, described by the daily as being “close to the Iraq controversy”, told The Guardian. Hutton was said to be particularly concerned that the BBC overreacted to his findings, and did not expect his inquiry to prompt any resignations in the organisation, The Guardian said.
— PTI |
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Maoists bomb 3 buildings Kathmandu, March 4 |
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Mitchell replaces Eisner as Disney chief Philadelphia, March 4 The moves came after a stormy annual meeting at which 43 per cent of shareholders withheld their votes from Eisner, who has been blamed by some for the lacklustre performance of the media-entertainment powerhouse in recent years. “While making this change in governance, the board remains unanimous in its support of the company’s management team and of Michael Eisner, who will continue to serve as the Chief Executive Officer,” the board said in a statement late yesterday.
— AFP |
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