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Canada PM meets Dalai Lama
USA eases sanctions on Libya
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Arafat no more immune to attacks, says Sharon
Last French coalmine
closes
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Heart disease now a major threat
Signs of life in ancient
lava
Boy survives 9-storey fall
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Ottawa, April 24 Mr Martin became the first Canadian Prime Minister to meet the 1989 Nobel Prize winner yesterday, a day after he was accused by domestic critics of “kowtowing” to China by downplaying the political dimension of the talks. “It was an excellent meeting,” Mr Martin told reporters after leaving the meeting, conducted at the neutral “spiritual” venue of the residence of Ottawa’s Roman Catholic archbishop. “We discussed a lot of subjects in a short period of time: the world situation, the question of human rights, the rights of people in Tibet,” he said. Mr Martin also said that he discussed a recent spate of anti-Semitic crimes in Montreal and Toronto with his guest. “I think the Dalai Lama’s message to Canada is very, very important,” he said. “We have always been a nation of great mutual respect and understanding,” he said. “For the Dalai Lama to come and remind us of that fundamental value is very, very important.” The Dalai Lama left the meeting without commenting. Domestic politicians, however, have accused Mr Martin of bowing to intimidation. China’s fury led some observers here to fear that vital Canadian trade ties with the communist giant could suffer some reprisals over the meetings.
— AFP |
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USA eases sanctions on Libya
Washington, April 24 The easing of restrictions imposed in 1986 as well as in 1996 under the Libya Sanctions Law comes after Libyan leader Moammer Gadhafi agreed to toe the Washington line and decided to eliminate WMDs, pledged to halt all support for terrorism and signed the IAEA Additional Protocol besides removing all elements of its declared nuclear programme. “Since December 19, Libya has taken significant steps in eliminating weapons of mass destruction programmes and longer range missiles, and has reiterated its pledge to halt all support for terrorism,” the White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan said in a statement yesterday. The clearing of restrictions will allow US firms and individuals to resume most commercial activities, financial transactions, and investments in the Libyan oil industry. “US companies will be able to buy or invest in Libyan oil and products. US commercial banks and other financial service providers will be able to participate in and support these transactions,” the statement said. The State Department will establish a liaison office in Tripoli, a step towards normalising diplomatic relations, and as a result of lifting of commercial restrictions, Libyan students will be able to study in the USA, it said.
— PTI |
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Arafat no more immune to attacks, says Sharon
Jerusalem, April 24 “I promised President Bush three years ago not to attack Mr Arafat, but I am no longer bound by that promise, and (Arafat) no longer has immunity,” Mr Sharon said yesterday. Mr Sharon told the Channel Two television in an interview that he told Mr Bush about the latest decision during their meeting last week, but did not disclose the US President’s response to the changed stance. However, the White House said Mr Bush, during the meeting, “reiterated his opposition” on harming Mr Arafat. “We have made it entirely clear to the Israeli government that we would oppose any such action and have done so again in the wake of these remarks,” a senior official reportedly said adding, “we consider a pledge, a pledge.” The USA State Department also said that it stood by its opposition on attacking Mr Arafat. “Nothing has changed in the US position,” spokesman Richard Boucher said. Meanwhile, Mr Arafat yesterday called on world leaders and told them about Mr Sharon’s latest threat, a report said. Mr Arafat apprised European, Arab, Egyptian and Jordanian leaders about Mr Sharon’s threat and the consequences of escalation of violence in Palestinian territories, his chief advisor, Mr Abu Rudeina, said. In September, the Israeli cabinet had decided that Mr Arafat should be “removed”, an intentionally vague statement that could mean expulsion or assassination. Palestinian officials have expressed concerns that Israel might attack Mr Arafat, especially in the wake of the assassinations of Hamas leaders and the tough posture against the veteran leader. On Thursday, Mr Arafat expelled 20 militants who had sought shelter at his West Bank headquarters, fearing an imminent Israeli attack. Mr Nabil Abu Rdeneh, an aide to Arafat, warned that Mr Sharon’s “dangerous statements ... could push the whole region into tremendous danger.” In the interview that will be broadcast in its entirety on Independence Day, Mr Sharon discussed the Likud referendum on his disengagement plan.
— PTI |
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Israeli army kills 3 Palestinians Jenin, April 24 |
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Last French coalmine
closes
Creutzwald (France) April 24 The pit is in Lorraine, once the throbbing heart of French heavy industry. Nuclear power and foreign competition have killed off a great tradition associated with sacrifice and the classic years of industrial struggle. Coalmining started in France in 1720 and assumed a vital role in its 19th century industrial development. As elsewhere in Europe, French coalminers in their heyday were at the centre of workers’ struggles for better conditions, the heroes of “Germinal,” one of the great novels of social criticism by 19th century novelist Emile Zola. But, as elsewhere in Europe, French coalmining has been gradually dying for years. The newspaper L’Humanite, flagship of the once powerful French communist party — now almost as withered as the French coal industry — mourned the passing of an industrial elite that once provided the backbone of French communism. “For the last half-century,” it wrote yesterday, “French coalmining has suffered a tormented, contradictory history, a time both of apogee in production and of programmed decline, leading to the extinction of the last pit this evening.” Around 2,500 people — miners, families and politicians including Industry Minister Patrick Devedjian — attended the ceremony to close the La Houve mine at Creutzwald late last night.
— AFP |
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Heart disease now a major threat
Washington, April 24 Heart disease, once an illness of the rich, is killing more and more people in poor countries, according to the report. “The risk of cardiovascular disease is growing as populations increase in cities,” reads the report, issued by Columbia University’s Earth Institute in New York. “There, food is steadily becoming cheaper and exercise is scarce. Obesity and diabetes are rising faster in urban than in rural areas,” the report adds. “The tobacco scourge, now at epidemic levels in less-developed countries, exacts its toll in many ways, but cardiovascular deaths are its principal mode of mortality.” Unlike in the USA, few are working to help people quit smoking, to eat healthier diets and to get some exercise, the report says. The result is that people are dying young — in their most productive economic years. The loss of middle-aged workers will affect entire economies, the report cautions. In the USA, where heart disease is the No. 1 killer, there are 116 deaths per 100,000 men aged 35 to 59 from heart disease and stroke each year. In Russia, there are 576 such deaths per 100,000 men the same age. “Cardiovascular disease has always been seen as a disease of affluent and older people in developed nations, yet 80 per cent of all CVD deaths occur in low-and middle-income countries,” Mr Philip Poole-Wilson, president of the Geneva-based non profit World Heart Federation said in a statement. “A major finding of this report is that in developing countries the onset of CVD occurs among younger people, increasingly affecting those of working and productive age.”
— Reuters |
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Signs of life in ancient
lava
Washington, April 24 The microbes, known as archaea, dug into volcanic rock to form long tubes. A team from the USA, Norway, Canada, and South Africa found evidence of the lava-burrowing archaea in 3.5 billion-year-old rock in South Africa. “Our evidence is amongst the oldest evidence for life found so far,” said Hubert Staudigel, a research geophysicist at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California, San Diego.
— Reuters |
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Hong Kong, April 24 The boy’s fall from the high-rise block was broken by tree branches before he landed in a flower bed, a police spokesman said. He was still conscious and chatted with his father who found him before he was taken to hospital where he was in serious but not life-threatening condition. The boy had been left sleeping at home yesterday while his parents took his seven-year-old sister to school. He is believed to have stood on a sofa and opened a window to look for his parents when he fell from the apartment in Hong Kong’s Sheung Shui district. The incident is the second of its kind in Hong Kong this month. On April 5, another four-year-old boy survived a fall from a second-floor apartment window after being left home alone by his parents.
— DPA |
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