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Bush seeks common voice over N. Korea
Aziz out of touch with reality, says Benazir |
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Pak Oppn launches anti-govt protests
SWAPO back in power, vows to carry out land refroms
66 Maoists, 10 soldiers
Iraq goes to polls on Jan 30, 16 killed in violence
Human rights activist jailed in Bahrain
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Bush seeks common voice over N. Korea
Santiago (Chile), November 21 North Korea refused to attend talks in September. Mr Bush’s goal at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum this weekend was to rally China, Japan, South Korea and Russia to persuade Pyongyang to agree to a new round of six-party talks by the end of the year or early next year. In a picture-taking session with Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, Mr Bush had a direct message for North Korean leader Kim Jong-il, who has nursed hopes of having direct talks with the USA. “What’s very important for the leader of North Korea to understand is that the six-party talks will be the framework in which we continue to discuss the mutual goal we all have, which is to rid the Korean peninsula of nuclear weapons,” Mr Bush said. US negotiators face divisions among parties to the talks who have pressured Washington to make more concessions to North Korea on top of its June proposal to allow South Korea and Japan to provide the North with aid. While US officials deny a split, Mr Bush said he was talking to Koizumi, Chinese President Hu Jintao, South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun and Russia’s Vladimir Putin in Santiago “about making sure that our intention remains the same, that we work together to achieve the goal. And the leader of North Korea will hear a common voice,” Mr Bush said. Mr Bush particularly wanted the Chinese help on North Korea. He expressed the hope that the issue can be resolved peacefully through dialogue. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Kong Quan, speaking after Hu’s meeting with South Korea’s Roh yesterday, said the two Asian leaders wanted six-party talks to resume as soon as possible. Asked if he thought Mr Bush was pushing North Korea too hard, Mr Kong told a news conference: “I believe that you can never push too hard if it is for a good purpose.” The US-Asian economic relations were also at the heart of the talks today amid concerns about the sliding dollar. In his meeting with Mr Koizumi, Mr Bush insisted that the USA was committed to a strong dollar despite its drop in value and would work with the US Congress on reducing the budget deficit, a factor which led to dollar’s fall. Mr Koizumi said he agreed with Mr Bush that “a strong dollar has good impact on the US economy and is also important for the world economy,” Mr Bush said he and Hu also talked about US-Chinese economic relations, “about how we’ll work over the next four years to continue to spread prosperity and make sure the relationship is fair and equitable on both sides.” He did not elaborate, but the USA has been asking China to adopt a more flexible exchange rate as a way to boost exports and help US manufacturers. Mr Bush's presence in the Chilean capital for the summit has triggered outrage. Thousands of people streamed through central Santiago on Friday carrying banners and chanting slogans against the US-led occupation of Iraq. |
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Aziz out of touch with reality, says Benazir Islamabad, November 21 In a statement issued here yesterday, Ms Bhutto said Mr Aziz appeared not to be fully aware of the reasons and factors that led to the growth of Malaysia and Singapore. She said: “The regime should give specific details to the people of what can be delivered in the next six and 12 months or resign from the office.” She said the decision to build a second army headquarters in Islamabad at a cost of billions of rupees, when one was already available in nearby Rawalpindi, was a sheer waste of national resources. “It was such waste on grandiose projects that would compound Pakistan’s economic problems despite massive international assistance,” she added. The PPP leader said people wanted jobs, clean drinking water, affordable health facilities and development project in their own towns and villages. Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz acting president Javed Hashmi said Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz’s address to the nation was full of misstatements and vague promises and merely reflected the anti-people agenda of Gen Pervez Musharraf. The PML-N leader, in a statement issued here on Saturday, said the address was as insignificant as those previously delivered by Mohammad Khan Junejo and Mir Zafarullah Khan Jamali. He said the reality of Mr Aziz’s economic promises was exposed in his claim of having broken the begging bowl, because the present government had replaced borrowing from the IMF with huge loans obtained from the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank, resulting in greater debt burden for the country. He said not only the people of Pakistan but the world community also were aware of the lie that Pakistani media enjoyed freedom. The PML-N leader said the government which had restrained the journalists from observing the military action in South Waziristan had no right to claim ensuring press freedom. Mr Hashmi said the Prime Minister’s address on Friday was a belated effort to cover up his failure in addressing the nation right after he was sworn in. Meanwhile, PML-N leader Mohammad Mehdi has said there has been an increase of 8.5 million people in the population of those living below the poverty line due to poor economic policies of the present regime. Commenting on Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz’s address to the nation, the PML-N leader claimed that there had been an increase of 1.36 million unemployed people in the country only in 2004. Mr Mehdi said the military regime had totally failed to provide any relief to the common man. He alleged that the government was acquiring loans through Euro Bonds at a rate of seven per cent, while earlier it was getting loan from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) at the rate of only 0.5 per cent. Pakistan Muslim League has welcomed the speech of Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz, terming it a ray of hope for the general masses regarding ensuring further political and economic stability in the country. The PML spokesman, in a statement, said the policies and steps the Prime Minister had announced reflected his new vision which would usher in a new era of development. The way he (Mr Aziz) mentioned the national issues and suggested their solutions shows his far-sightedness, political vision, sagacity and love for the people and Pakistan, he added.
— By arrangement with The Dawn, Karachi
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Pak Oppn launches anti-govt protests
Islamabad, November 21 The Alliance for Restoration of Democracy (ARD), a multi-party entity spearheading the agitation, yesterday decided to hold protest, demonstrations across the country beginning December 6 to mount pressure on the government. The alliance also decided to go alone with its protest and refused a proposal for joint movement by Islamist alliance Muttahida Majlis
e-Amal (MMA), apparently after pressure from Pakistan People’s Party, a key constituent in the
ARD. Taking to reporters here after a meeting of the ARD, its chairman Amin Fahim alleged “the people are fed up with price hike, unemployment and poor law and order situation, and they are being forced to commit suicide.” “Due to the poor law and order situation, even the mosques and the Imambargahs are not spared of the terrorist attacks,” he charged. Claiming that the people are unsafe and the government has failed to maintain law and order, he said “if a government is not in a position to provide security to the people then it should be removed.” In a veiled attack against President Pervez Musharraf, he said the entire government machinery revolves around a single person and the policies were being framed to protect him. Even the constitution had been amended empowering him to hold two offices and he was against the promotion and strengthening of democratic process.”
— PTI |
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SWAPO back in power, vows to carry out land refroms
Windhoek, November 21 SWAPO won 55 out of 72 seats in Parliament and its presidential candidate Hifikepunye Pohamba gained 76.4 per cent of the votes in the mineral-rich southern African nation of 1.9 million inhabitants, official results showed. Mr Pohamba, the handpicked successor of President Sam Nujoma, said distributing land to poor blacks would be his top priorities among with crime, corruption and the HIV/AIDS epidemic. “I’m gratified and humbled by the five-year mandate entrusted to me to continue the social-economic struggle for our country and its people,” he said at an official ceremony announcing the result. From now onwards I am a full-time servant of the Namibian people,’’ he said. Former guerrilla leader Nujoma resigned from the top post in March after remaining its president for 15 years. But will remain SWAPO chief until at least 2007. Many expect him to retain influence behind a Mr Pohamba government. Mr Pohamba said he wanted to encourage foreign investments, currently concentrated in several large mines. Foreign investment was very limited before independence in 1990 when the country was occupied by South Africa. Since then investors have been on the sidelines waiting for the country to become more stable. “Our doors will remain open for foreign investors to invest in our country and assist our economy.” Mr Pohamba was a close confidant of Mr Nujoma through three decades in exile during the struggle against the South African occupation, although relations with South Africa are now good. Mr Pohamba recently served as the Land Minister, and led the campaign to distribute land from the minority whites to poor black Namibians. Land reform is a hot topic across several southern African countries where centuries of white domination have left much of the productive land in the hands of white minorities. Earlier this year Namibia had said that it would start depriving the owners of their farm land because the pace of reform was moving too slowly. But he stressed that it was not the start of a Zimbabwe-style land grab. Observers said the policy shift was mainly to convince white farmers to sell their land voluntarily. The election results showed a fragmented opposition, with the Congress of Democrats getting the second-most seats at five. The Democratic Turnhalle Alliance, which had been the official opposition, got four seats. — Reuters |
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66 Maoists, 10 soldiers killed in Nepal
Kathmandu, November 21 “The clashes began last night and continued till this morning at Pandon village in Kailali district,” the officer said. “The bodies of 16 rebels were found from the clash site and 50 others were found 50 metres away,” he said. “In the clashes, 10 security personnel were killed while 16 others were injured,” he said. The number of fatalities could not immediately be verified by official sources. The clash was the biggest since the ending of a nine-day temporary truce between Maoist and government forces on October 28. Maoist rebels also declared an immediate two-day traffic blockade in the Gandaki and Lumbini zones of western Nepal, leaving at least 10,000 tourists stranded. The blockade was called to protest against the killing by security forces of ‘local leaders and activists’, said Mr Dev Gurung, Maoist politburo member in charge of the Gandaki area. “In Pokhara, Chitwan and Lumbini, at least 10,000 tourists have been stranded due to the Maoist restriction,” Hotel Association Nepal president Narendra Bajracharya said. He appealed to the rebels and the government to hold peace talks to resolve the Maoist insurgency issue.
— AFP |
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Iraq goes to polls on Jan 30, 16 killed in violence
Baghdad, November 21 According to Iraq’s timetable for democracy, the poll must be held by the end of January for a transitional parliament that would pick a new government and oversee the writing of a constitution. Violence surged in Sunni areas this month, with insurgents attacking US and Iraqi security forces in several cities while the US military was preoccupied with driving insurgents out of Fallujah. Guerrillas ambushed a US patrol and tried to storm a police station in Baghdad yesterday, killing one US soldier and at least three Iraqi police personnel. In Mosul, Iraq’s third largest city, US troops found the bodies of nine Iraqi soldiers yesterday. In Ramadi, west of Fallujah, seven persons were killed yesterday when a civilian bus was riddled with bullets.
— Reuters |
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Human rights activist jailed in Bahrain
Manama, November 21 Abdulhadi al-Khawaja, head of the now-banned Bahrain Centre for Human Rights, was arrested in September after blaming Prime Minister Sheikh Khalifa bin Salman al-Khalifa in a public speech for the country’s economic woes and past human rights abuses. He went on trial last month, charged with defamation and jeopardising public interests. Khawaja denied the charges and his lawyers called his detention unconstitutional. Khawaja’s detention and closure of his centre drew criticism from international human rights groups and from the USA. “The verdict is a dangerous step against human rights in Bahrain,” said Joanna Oyediran, a representative of Amnesty International who attended the ruling session. “Khawaja is a prisoner of conscience and we demand his immediate and unconditional release. We will continue to campaign on this case,” she said. — Reuters |
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In video: Pakistan's
Opposition prepares anti-Musharraf protest. (
