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Indonesia dispels aid graft charges
Bobby Jindal addresses anti-abortion rally
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Hamas to review truce deal
Iraqi judge slain in series
of attacks
Nuclear assets safe, says Pak
Holocaust victims remembered
Painkiller linked to 1,40,000 heart
attacks
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Indonesia dispels aid graft charges
Banda Aceh, January 25 Indonesia’s Health Ministry, meanwhile, significantly changed the way it tallies victims from last month’s tsunami, saying it would only concretely identify as dead those who had been buried and that the rest would be listed as missing for a full year. The ministry’s death toll went down from about 1,70,000 to just over 96,000 under the new rules, but at the same time it added substantially to the missing, bringing the combined total of dead and missing from about 1,80,000 to 2,20,000. Most of the missing are presumed dead. The new procedure also means that two of the three Indonesian agencies tallying the dead now agree on a death toll after having huge discrepancies. The Social Affairs Ministry, which is also counting casualties, raised its death toll today by some 9,000 to 1,23,198 dead, with 12,046 missing. Both Indonesia and Sri Lanka, the two worst-hit nations, have reported conflicting death toll figures — reflecting both the disaster’s enormity and the difficultly of the task. Indonesia, one of the world’s most graft-ridden nations, said it would publish a monthly list of aid donated for relief operations in Aceh province. “We will announce every month, on the 26th, the money we receive,” said Welfare Minister Alwi Shihab. “We will list down all contributions and where it is going to avoid any suspicion (of graft).” Beijing: India today said its tsunami early warning system will be fully operational by September 2007 and expressed willingness to contribute to the establishment of such a mechanism for the Indian Ocean region. The system will be in place by March 2006, and will be fully operational by September 2007, after testing, Advisor and Head of Seismology Division of the Ministry of Science and Technology, G.D. Gupta, said at the opening session of the China-ASEAN Workshop on tsunami warning here. Pointing out that India had a strong institutional backbone for setting up an independent early warning system, Mr Gupta told international experts that New Delhi was willing to contribute to the proposed regional tsunami early warning system. — AP/PTI |
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Bobby Jindal addresses anti-abortion rally
Washington, January 25 The “March for Life Rally” organisers said Monday was the 32nd annual one on the anniversary of the 1973 Roe versus Wade Supreme Court decision that made abortion a personal decision for women. “Today we march in the cold so that our children, our friends and our neighbours will remember that life is precious,” said Jindal, the Republican lawmaker of Indian origin from Louisiana. “Life is sacred. It is a gift.” Jindal said he was honoured to be asked to speak at the national event, which annually draws supporters from across the country. “We will continue to pray,” Jindal added. “We will continue to persuade. And we will continue to work until we create a culture of life right here in America, a culture of life that welcomes every child and values every life.” President George W. Bush also addressed this year’s rally through a telephone call from Crawford, Texas, along with a number of Senators and Representatives. The 32nd annual US March for Life activities began on January 22 in Washington DC.
— IANS |
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Hamas to review truce deal
Jerusalem, January 25 “For the first time, very substantial progress has been made and the negotiations have produced real results that will soon be released,” Mr Hassan Yousuf, a senior Hamas leader in the West Bank, was quoted as saying by the Israel Radio. He said the group will “view with favour” a ceasefire agreement but the success of the deal depended on Israel’s actions. Hamas officials are said to have demanded that Israel released Palestinian prisoners, halt military operations, return the bodies of militants and retreat from the Palestinian areas during the ceasefire talks, the radio said. They also reportedly said that they had sorted out all their differences with Palestinian Authority (PA) Chairman Mahmoud Abbas. Mr Ziad Abu Amr, Palestinian negotiator in the talks with the militant factions, had said yesterday that the armed groups have promised to temporarily suspend attacks on Israel.
— PTI |
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Iraqi judge slain in series
of attacks
Baghdad, January 25 Clashes erupted this morning in Baghdad’s eastern Rashad neighbourhood as the Iraqi police fired on insurgents who were handing out leaflets warning people not to vote in Sunday’s national elections. Armed men attacked a police station in the neighborhood and US troops intervened. Yesterday, Iraqi authorities announced they had in custody an Al-Qaida lieutenant who confessed to masterminding most of the car bombings in Baghdad, including the bloody 2003 assault on the UN headquarters in the capital. The slain judge was identified as Qais Hashim Shameri, Secretary-General of the Judges Council in the Justice Ministry. Assailants sprayed his car with bullets in an attack that also wounded the judge’s driver.
— AP |
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Nuclear assets safe, says Pak
Islamabad, January 25 Replying to a question at his weekly press briefing about a statement by the US Secretary of State- designate,
Condoleezza Rice, that the USA had contingency plan for Pakistan's nuclear programme to prevent it from falling into the hands of extremists, Foreign Office spokesman Masood Khan said Pakistan's strategic assets were in safe hands and needed no external security plan. Mr Khan said Pakistan did not need any external assistance to ensure protection of its nuclear arsenal as Islamabad had effective command and control systems. He rejected allegations published in a section of US media, and said the extremists had no access to Pakistan's nuclear assets. "We have a fail-safe mechanism," he said. Mr Khan said Pakistan was alive and responsive to all dangers which could even remotely threaten its security. On the issue of Pak-Iran relations, Mr Khan said Islamabad and Tehran had very good relations, but there was no collaboration between the two countries on the nuclear issue. Replying to questions, Mr Khan rejected claims in the Western media that Pakistan had accused Iran of inciting violence in Baluchistan. He said that disturbances in Baluchistan were being addressed by security forces. He further said that Pakistan had conducted investigations into disturbances in Baluchistan and had not accused any third country. In reply to a question about a statement by Indian Petroleum Minister that Pakistan and India were very close to signing an agreement on gas pipeline from Iran, Mr Khan said if the Indian minister had issued a positive statement, Pakistan welcomed it. He said issues like the gas pipeline had to be discussed by all three countries and Pakistan would like to push the project in a manner that there were no external conditionalities attached to it. The spokesman said the project would benefit all three countries. |
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Camp Westerbork, (Netherlands), January 25 Braving the snow and sub-zero temperatures, Dutch holocaust survivor Truus Stern (79), yesterday read from the list of names of over 1,00,000 Jews and other victims who were deported from The Netherlands during the holocaust and never returned. The oral act of remembrance, which began in Amsterdam on Saturday, will be completed on Thursday morning to coincide with the 60th anniversary of the liberation of the infamous Auschwitz death camp in Poland. — AFP |
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‘The Aviator’ wins 11 Oscar nominations
Los Angeles, January 25 All three films were nominated for best picture for the 77th annual Academy Awards along with the Ray Charles biography “Ray” and comedy “Sideways.” Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences President Frank Pierson called it the Academy’s first “horse race” in several years. “It’s wide open,” Pierson said. Scorsese, the 63-year-old veteran who has never won an Oscar in six previous nominations, was nominated as best director for “The Aviator.”
— Reuters
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Painkiller linked to 1,40,000 heart
attacks
A blockbuster drug launched five years ago as a revolutionary treatment for arthritis may have caused up to 1,40,000 heart attacks in US patients of whom 44 per cent died, scientists said on Monday, making it the world's worst drug disaster.
Vioxx, a new type of painkiller launched in 1999, was one of the most heavily promoted drugs in history, with sales in 80 countries and a global market of 80 million patients. More than 4 lakh patients were taking it in Britain, where it could have caused up to 1,000 heart attacks and deaths. Last September, the manufacturer Merck & Co withdrew the drug from the market after evidence emerged linking it with heart problems. Now, a study of 1.4 million people in California shows that those taking Vioxx had a one- third higher chance of having a heart attack than those taking other painkillers. David Graham, of the US Food and Drug Administration, and colleagues concluded: "An estimated 88,000 to 1,40,000 excess cases of serious coronary heart disease probably occurred in the USA over the market life of rofecoxib (Vioxx). The US national estimate of the case fatality rate was 44 per cent, which suggests that many of the excess cases attributable to rofecoxib use were fatal." Doctors on both sides of the Atlantic have warned of a public health emergency over other painkillers in the same class, known as Cox-2 inhibitors, which could also pose a risk. A report in The New England Journal of Medicine last October said studies since 1999 had repeatedly indicated a danger with Vioxx. Drug regulators made Merck include a warning in the drug package but never ordered a definitive trial. By arrangement with
The Independent |
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Washington, January 25
