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Japan to keep troops in Iraq
Rumsfeld dismisses row over missing
Iraqi explosives
Mixed reaction of Pak media on
Afghan poll won’t affect Pak politics,
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3 militants killed in Pak
Thai PM apologises for Muslims’
deaths
Britain to stop export of Lady Mountbatten’s headband
DNA tests booming in China
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Japan to keep troops in Iraq
Tokyo, October 27 The crisis is a political challenge for Koizumi, who decided to send Japanese troops to Iraq despite strong public opposition. “We cannot tolerate terrorism and we will not give in to terrorism,” Koizumi said. “We will not withdraw the Self-Defence Force (SDF),” he added. The hostage taken in Iraq by a group led by Al-Qaida ally Abu Musab al-Zarqawi had been identified as Shosei Koda, 24, of Fukuoka in southern Japan, government officials said. His family said he had been travelling abroad. Al-Qaida gave the Japanese government 48 hours to withdraw its troops from Iraq, “or this infidel will meet the same fate as Berg ... and the other infidels,” the group said, in a reference to American Nick Berg, who was beheaded in May. A video posted on a Web site often used by militants showed Koda, with long hair and a thin beard, seated in front of three masked men and a black banner bearing the group’s name. Koda’s family told public broadcaster NHK that Koda had gone abroad in January and started a working holiday in New Zealand in July. “We are trying all we can to secure his release, through government channels and through Iraqis,” Koizumi later told parliament. Japan has deployed about 550 non-combat troops to Samawa, 270 km (168 miles) south of the Iraqi capital, Baghdad, for humanitarian and reconstruction work. US Ambassador to Japan Howard Baker told the Japanese government he supported Tokyo’s decision not to pull out its troops, adding that Washington would do what it could to help.
— Reuters |
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Rumsfeld dismisses row over missing Iraqi explosives
Washington, October 27 “Do you remember when the museum — everyone said the museum was looted?” Rumsfeld said when asked to comment on the disappearance of 380 tonnes of conventional high explosives from Al-Qaqaa military base south of Baghdad. The Iraqi government informed the International Atomic Energy Agency on October 10, describing the missing explosives as mainly HMX and RDX — deadly substances that can be used to bring down multi-storey buildings, destroy airplanes, manufacture high-powered ordnance, and serve as detonators in nuclear weapons. The information was relayed to the US mission in Vienna and then to US President George W. Bush in late October, according to White House officials.
— AFP |
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Mixed reaction of Pak media on Kashmir formula
Islamabad, October 27 “For Pakistan to alter its stated position vis-a-vis the right of self-determination to Kashmiris would not be wise,” ‘The Nation’, known for its hardline stand on Kashmir commented. It said Musharraf’s proposals to resolve Kashmir issue had some “serious implications.” “The one that should not be ignored is that accepting the UN supervision of a seven-region Kashmir would amount, for example, to giving up the security of Mangla Dam (in
PoK), which supplies water to most parts of Pakistan.” The paper said the best platform to debate the issue was in Parliament. “The President believed that his formula was the most realistic one and required a national consensus for moving forward if India demanded the demilitarisation of
PoK. “But he can’t claim so until this proposal is put to test before Parliament which in any democratic polity is the most appropriate forum to debate issues of national importance,” it said. General Musharraf on Monday proposed that India and Pakistan should consider the option of identifying some “regions” of Kashmir on both sides of the LoC, demilitarise them and grant them the status of independence or joint control or under UN mandate. Backing Musharraf’s proposal, ‘The Dawn’ said, “With no solution (to Kashmir issue) on the basis of the UN resolutions in sight, common sense demands that alternative approaches be tried rather than remaining stuck in the old groove.” It said a stage had reached to change the thinking on the Kashmir issue, adding it was a big challenge for the Musharraf government how it handled this change.
— PTI |
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Afghan poll won’t affect Pak politics, says
Musharraf
Singapore, October 27 In an interview with Singapore’s Straits Times, he said, “We are with President Karzai” and dismissed suggestions that the Pakistani military maintained links with the former Taliban regime in Kabul for strategic reasons. “And Karzai knows this very well. He himself rang me after the elections thanking me for all the assistance,” he said adding “vested interests” were spreading rumours about Pakistan’s intentions in Afghanistan. Asked if Afghanistan’s presidential elections could create pressure to speed up the restoration of democracy in Pakistan, he replied: “If we have to learn democracy from Afghanistan, God save Pakistan.” “We are well on course with our democracy,” he added. In the interview, General Musharraf denied perpetuating his hold on power by creating a National Security Council, which he described as an “institutional check” on the power of president as well as the army chief.
— AFP |
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3 militants killed in Pak
Islamabad, October 27 A group of militants opened fire on security forces in Azam Warsak area in South Waziristan, forcing the troops to return fire, defence spokesman Maj-Gen Shaukat Sultan told PTI here. He said three militants were killed when the soldiers fired back at their vehicle.
— PTI |
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Thai PM apologises for Muslims’
deaths
Bangkok, October 27 The victims were among over 2000 protestors who clashed with security forces outside a police station in Narahiwat province on Monday, demanding unconditional release of six suspected jailed Muslim militants. Police brought the riot under control by using water cannon and tear gas, then fired into the air to try to scatter the crowd. Later police and
soldiers kicked 1300 bare-chested young men into trucks that took them away. The detainees spent more than six hours in the vehicles before arriving at an army camp in a neighbouring province. Mr Thaksin told the Thai Senate that there had been some mistakes and the authorities did not have enough trucks to transport the 1300 rioters who were arrested in the Narathiwat province. He claimed that the authorities had to pile the detainees up on top of each other, resulting in their deaths from suffocation and being crushed. Mr Thaksin apologised for their untimely death and noted that the military had used the “soft approach” and not fired a single round into the crowd. He said rounds had been fired only in the air.
— PTI |
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Britain to stop export of Lady Mountbatten’s headband
London, October 27 Lady Mountbatten bought the Cartier-made bandeau set with diamonds, carved Indian rubies, sapphires and emeralds in 1928. The Department of Culture said the Art Deco piece, valued at $550,000, had recently changed hands and the new owner had applied for an export license. It declined to identify the current and previous owners. The temporary export ban gives British institutions three months to raise funds to purchase the bandeau. Lady Mountbatten, a god-daughter of King Edward VII, was married to Earl Mountbatten of Burma, uncle of Queen Elizabeth II’s husband Prince Philip. Mountbatten was supreme allied commander for Southeast Asia in World War II, and was Viceroy of India before it gained independence. He was killed by the Irish Republican Army in 1979. Lady Mountbatten died in 1960.
— AP |
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Women’s work is not only underpaid, but undervalued
Hard on the heels of a report from an internet bank noting the rise of a supposedly new breed of "triple-C" superwomen —with career, cash and may be upwards of 2,50,000 triple-Cs in Britain—, there are many times more, an estimated 60 per cent of all working women, who are locked into employment sectors where women predominate and the pay is low.
For all the advances of women in the workplace over the past 30 years, women in full-time employment still earn on an average 19 per cent less than men do in full-time employment; part-timers fare still worse, earning 40 per cent less than their male counterparts. Efforts by the government to narrow that gap have produced disappointing results. The gap between the earnings of women and men has been cut by only a sliver. Hence, perhaps, the new tack chosen by the Trade and Industry Secretary Patricia Hewitt on Tuesday , when she called for "career sexism" — the gravitation of women and men towards different sectors of employment — to be eliminated. She also criticised the "macho male image" of some industries, such as engineering and construction. As she pointed out at the summit in London, much of the discrepancy between male and female pay is accounted for not by direct discrimination, which is
illegal, but by the generally lower pay levels in the sectors where most women work and by the failure of all but a few women to reach the highest pay grades elsewhere. Ms Hewitt is right to subject the employment gap to scrutiny, as well as the pay gap. She is also right when she says that women should be encouraged to enter traditionally male-dominated areas of employment and that all remaining formal and psychological barriers to women taking up such jobs need to be removed. The fact is, though, that this will be only one route to raising women's pay. The wage gap will not be significantly narrowed, let alone eliminated, until those jobs that are regarded as "women's work" are valued as highly as those done by men , and paid accordingly.
— By arrangement with The Independent, London |
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DNA tests booming in China
Beijing, October 27 Despite the relatively high price of $ 158 (US) per person, the number of couples in Shenzhen who are seeking DNA identification has increased 50 per cent every year since 2001, according to a report in the Guangzhou Daily. Currently, about 80 to 90 per cent of the applications are made by ordinary Chinese parents, while others are made by judicial departments.
— PTI |
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Washington, October 27
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