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India, Tanzania set up task force
on projects
Oppn to mobilise public against Pervez
Bush failed good Samaritan test, says Kerry
Nuclear test by North Korea? |
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Dalai Lama sends envoys
to China
Iran rejects limits on
Truth about UK plastic surgeons
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India, Tanzania set up task force
on projects
Dar-es-Salaam, September 12 A suggestion to form the task force was mooted by President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam during a one-on-one meeting with his Tanzanian counterpart Benjamin William Mkapa yesterday. Kalam, on a four-day visit here, made the suggestion in view of the fact that the $ 200-million credit line that India has extended under the New Partnership for Africa’s Development remained unutilised as the projects had not been identified, Secretary (West) Shashi U Tripathi told reporters today. The President said that India could offer its assistance in identifying the projects, Tripathi said adding that the Tanzanian side had agreed to the suggestion. She said Tanzania also expressed its willingness to seek India’s expertise in the fields of health, education and agriculture. Kalam offered India’s assistance which was accepted by the Tanzanian side. He also suggested the University of Dar-es-Salaam should identify universities in India for signing an agreement and carry out exchange of faculty for research. The Tanzanian side also sought India’s assistance in the field of primary education, she said adding the hosts also briefed the Indian leadership on the problems it faced on account of refugees from its neighbours Rwanda and Burundi.
— PTI |
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Oppn to mobilise public against Pervez
Islamabad, September 12 “The Alliance for Restoration of Democracy (ARD) will launch a public mobilisation campaign later this month,” central secretary of Pakistan Muslim League Siddique-ul-Farooq said a day after ARDs summit meeting, which expressed indignation over General Musharraf’s intentions of not to step down as army chief. The ARD comprises Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) and Pakistan Muslim League of former Prime Ministers Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif, respectively. “We are confident that the people will support our campaign as they are fed up with increasing lawlessness, insecurity, poverty and joblessness in the country,” Mr Farooque said. The alliance also announced its conditional support to the six-party strong Islamic opposition alliance, Mutahida Majlis-e-Ammal(MMA), on this issue. “We will support the MMA if it accepts the mistake of supporting the controversial 17th Amendment Bill,” secretary general ARD Zafar Iqbal Jhagra said. The MMA had last year announced its support in Parliament for a package of constitutional reforms that had virtually validated all actions and laws after General Musharraf’s October 1999 coup against the then Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, after the General agreed to take off the uniform by December 31, 2004. Following this, Parliament approved with a big majority the controversial Legal Framework Order (LFO), also called the 17th Amendment, which the ARD had rejected as ‘black law’. Observers believe that General Musharraf’s internal compulsions may have forced him to review his earlier commitment but the ARD leadership says General Musharraf knew from the very first day that he would not quit as army chief.
— UNI |
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Bush failed good Samaritan test, says Kerry
Washington, September 12 After placing three white lilies at a September 11 memorial in Boston Public Garden and addressing relatives of the victims at a service in the city’s baroque Opera House yesterday, Mr Kerry returned to Washington to address the congressional black caucus where he rebuked President Bush for "trying to muddy the waters" with the "tired, old, negative politics of the past." The Massachusetts Senator said the Republican President was "afraid" to meet with black groups that opposed his policies. He said he had failed the Bible’s good Samaritan test to help those in need and had made a "catastrophic" mess in Iraq. Blacks are a traditionally loyal Democratic voting bloc and Mr Kerry needs to turn them out on November 2 if he wants to reverse his deficit in public opinion poll and beat President Bush. Only hours earlier, Mr Kerry called for the Americans to unite in fighting the war on terror that was brought home to the United States by the September 11, 2001, attacks that killed almost 3,000 people. "While September 11 was the worst day we have ever seen, it brought out the best in all of us," the Democratic presidential nominee said. "And we must always remember that we will only defeat those who sought to destroy us by standing together as one America." President Bush's campaign spokesman Steve Schmidt called Mr Kerry’s remarks "baseless and divisive attacks.
— Reuters |
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Nuclear test by North Korea?
Seoul, September 12 ''There were rumours that the explosion was much bigger than the one at Ryongchon train station and the USA is showing a big interest as the blast was seen from satellites,'' Yonhap quoted an unnamed source in Beijing as saying. The cause had yet to be determined but the source said Washington was not ruling out the possibility that the blast might be linked to a nuclear test. Yonhap reported that a mushroom cloud up to 4 km in diameter was spotted after the blast in remote Yanggang province in the country's far northeast. The New York Times reported in its today's editions that the Bush administration had received recent intelligence reports that some experts believe could indicate North Korea is preparing to conduct its first nuclear weapons test explosion. South Korean government officials were not immediately available for comment. Thursday was the 56th anniversary of North Korea's founding. The reclusive communist state often stages extravaganzas and big events to mark important anniversaries.
— Reuters |
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Dalai Lama sends envoys
to China
Beijing, September 12 The Dalai Lama fled from China in 1959 during a failed uprising against the Communist rule over Tibet. He has since lived in exile in Dharmsala, India. He said he hoped for a breakthrough this year following China’s statement that it was “always open” to negotiations. “The Dalai Lama is pleased that his envoys are making another visit and hopes the process will move forward to bring about substantive negotiations on the Tibet problem,” his secretary said in a faxed statement. It said envoys Lodi Gyaltsen Gyari and Kelsang Gyaltsen along with senior assistants would leave for China today. “In addition to meetings Chinese leaders they may visit some Tibetan areas during the trip,” the statement said. The Chinese Foreign Ministry had no immediate comment today.
— AP |
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Iran rejects limits on
N-technology
Teheran, September 12 Foreign ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi also classed the issue of suspending centrifuge component building as “marginal” and said Iran had yet to make any concessions during negotiations with the European Union. “Nothing official from the Islamic republic has been said or announced in this regard so far, he said.
— AFP |
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Truth about UK plastic surgeons
Ministers are planning to overhaul Britain’s booming cosmetic surgery industry after a review found shocking evidence that vulnerable patients are being exploited by untrained and unscrupulous medics.
Potentially dangerous procedures are being carried out by surgeons with no specific training on patients misled by exaggerated or false claims, a report for the Chief Medical Officer has found. A string of high-profile blunders, that have left women permanently disfigured, has helped to alert the public to the dangers of the largely unregulated private plastic surgery industry. Botched tummy tucks, leaking breast implants and bodged botox injections are among a rising number of horror stories emerging from the trade, now the largest in any European country. An estimated (pounds sterling)7m in compensation has been paid out in Britain in the past 13 years as a result of botched or inappropriate surgery. Ministers are determined to toughen rules so that the 75,000 patients paying for private plastic surgery every year receive the same protection as NHS patients. The official review, commissioned a year ago by Sir Liam Donaldson, CMO, is understood to recommend new rules to limit the number of surgeons who can carry out the operations. Currently, any basically qualified surgeon can set up shop and carry out often tricky procedures. The review, headed by the patients’ tsar, Harry Cayton, is also expected to call for patients to be counselled on proposed procedures by those with no financial interest in the outcome, a new licensing system for clinics to bring them up to the same standard as private fertility clinics, and improved public education on the risks of procedures and a register of surgeons. New reality TV shows that offer participants the chance to undergo major operations to look like celebrities have helped to convince ministers that they need to act. Adam Searle, president of the British Association of Aesthetic and Plastic Surgeons, said surgical procedures had been reduced to the “level of the home or garden makeover”. “There is a situation where anybody can have a go if they choose,” he said. “It would not be acceptable if it were cardiac surgeon. We are witnessing a degradation in surgical procedures where it is down the level of the home or garden makeover.” Adrian Richards, a consultant plastic surgeon at Stoke Mandeville, warned that the growth in the industry had led to a decline in ethical standards. There was evidence that booming demand meant that foreign surgeons were flying to Britain to carry out operations with no subsequent follow-up, he said. “I turn down 20 per cent of people asking for operations. It is either not realistic or I don’t think I am the right person to help them, but when it is a business, they don’t like turning people away.” Britain’s 1,000 private clinics are supposed to be monitored by the Healthcare Commission. But the CMO took action after seeing evidence that some clinics were using untrained staff and issuing misleading claims. A spokesman for the Department of Health said: “A group of experts has been looking at the options for additional regulation of plastic and cosmetic surgery and will report shortly.” — By arrangement with The Independent |
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