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Ten killed in Baghdad attacks
Removal of mines may delay bus service
900 Indians in Pak jails to taste freedom
UN to crack down on sexual abuse by peacekeepers
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Eat apples to keep breast cancer at bay
Censor’s scissors out in Nepal
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Ten killed in Baghdad attacks
Baghdad, March 2 At least seven persons were killed and 30 wounded when the bomb blew up outside the army base in western Baghdad, the sources said. Would-be recruits and soldiers were lined up by the entrance to the base at the disused Al-Muthanna airport when a white Toyota Corolla sped to the gates and exploded, eyewitnesses said. “As he arrived, he blew himself up. Two soldiers were lifted up into the air and knocked across the street,” said Hussein Mohammed, who was 20 metres away when the car exploded. The blast left five damaged cars in the street, and streaks of blood stained the ground. In the second attack, three soldiers were killed and six wounded when a car bomber blew himself up at an army checkpoint in southwest Baghdad, said an army officer. Attackers had fired on the checkpoint just before the car bomber arrived, a tactic, he said was aimed at distracting the
soldiers. — AFP |
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Removal of mines may delay bus service
Islamabad, March 2 Informed sources told Dawn on Tuesday that senior military officers of India and Pakistan had established contact the other day and discussed early clearance of mines. The two sides would exchange information about the number of mines on each side of the border. They did not rule out the possibility of the UN assistance in the form of technical know-how and financial help to carry out the job. Both India and Pakistan had planted thousands of mines along their border areas, including Kashmir, after wars in 1948, 1965, 1971 and 1998 (Kargil). Sources said the two countries had agreed that not only the mines would be removed but a road would be built to facilitate the bus travel as the existing road on both sides of the LoC was in bad shape. The sources said Pakistan would provide funds to the army to get the road repaired and mines removed as early as possible. "But this job perhaps cannot be completed by April 7, the date agreed between the two countries for the revival of the old land route on both sides of the LoC," a source said. |
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900 Indians in Pak jails to taste freedom
Islamabad, March 2 “President Pervez Musharraf today ordered the release of these Indians,” Pakistan Foreign Ministry spokesman Jalil Abbas Jilani said. Mr Jilani hoped the gesture would have a good impact on the ongoing composite dialogue process. He said the Pakistan Government has already provided consular access to 700 fishermen and civilians held in various jails for illegal entry. “Now, the action is required on part of the Government of India,” he added. He said the government would make arrangements for the release of the remaining 200 Indians as and when the Indian Government confirms their national status. He clarified that the President in his meeting with leaders of the Left front had ordered the release of 31 Sikh youths, who had been held for illegally crossing into Pakistan from Iran in January. He added that all those Indians who had completed their jail term will not remain imprisoned. There are around 1,000 Indian fishermen presently imprisoned in Pakistani jails.
— UNI |
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UN to crack down on sexual abuse by peacekeepers
The United Nations is poised to crack down on sexual abuse committed by its blue-helmeted soldiers in the Congo. The action may not be isolated to that country as similar breaches have probably been occurring elsewhere.
An internal UN report to be released in the next few days is expected to recommend for the first time that peacekeepers accused of committing acts of sexual molestation should not be allowed to return home until they have been prosecuted in the country where the behaviour is meant to have taken place. Their own militaries would be responsible for conducting the court-martials, however. The report, being prepared by Jordan's UN ambassador, Prince Zeid al Hussein, will aim to put an end to the current arrangements whereby accused soldiers are allowed to return to their home countries before being prosecuted. In many instances, those prosecutions never actually take place and they go unpunished. The UN is also moving to begin publicly identifying countries whose soldiers are facing sex charges. Already reeling from multiple scandals, notably involving alleged corruption in the management of the oil-for-food scandal in Iraq, the body knows it must take firm action to address the Congo debacle as quickly as possible. It erupted last May when instances of abuse in the country began to come to light. The UN's envoy to the Democratic Republic of the Congo, William Lacy Swing, an American, is expected to offer his resignation tomorrow when he arrives in New York to confer with the UN Secretary General, Kofi Annan. While Mr Swing has not been accused of any direct involvement in the scandal, senior UN officials have concluded that it would be better to have a change at the top in the country. The UN is bracing for other cases to surface from peacekeeping missions in other countries, including Burundi, Sierra Leone, Ivory Coast and Haiti. "We think this will look worse before it begins to look better," Mr Jane Holl Lute, assistant secretary general for peacekeeping operations, conceded. "We expect that more information will come from every mission on allegations. We are prepared for that." Yesterday, meanwhile, hearings into the Congo scandal began in the United States Congress. A Republican representative from New Jersey, Christopher Smith, is introducing a bill to that would threaten to withhold American funds from UN peacekeeping missions unless all countries contributing soldiers to those missions have procedures in place instantly to prosecute soldiers accused of sexual misconduct. Because the US accounts for about a quarter of the UN's peacekeeping budget, the bill could have a powerful impact. "We're subsidising this larger than anyone else on Earth and we have a responsibility to make sure, as they're acting in our name, that there be a policy of zero tolerance," Mr Smith said. Mr Annan this week again vowed that the UN was working hard to resolve the problem. "We are taking very firm measures - changing some of the commanders, some of the civilian staff have been disciplined - and we've come up with very strict instructions that they should not fraternise the way they have done in the past," he told a women's rights conference. Officials have been investigating about 150 allegations lodged against 50 soldiers serving in the Congo. They are accused of offering tiny monetary rewards to prostitutes and minors, as young as 13, for sex. There have also been allegations of rape and gang rape of the very people they are meant to be protecting. There are about 11,000 peacekeepers in the country trying to curb civil conflict
there. — By arrangement with The Independent |
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Eat apples to keep breast cancer at bay
London, March 2 "We found that tumour incidence was reduced by 17, 39 and 44 per cent in rats fed the human equivalent of one, three or six apples a day, respectively, over 24 weeks," says Rui Hai Liu, Cornell associate professor of food science and lead author of the study. "Studies increasingly provide evidence that it is the additive and synergistic effects of the phytochemicals present in fruits and vegetables that are responsible for their potent antioxidant and anticancer activities," Liu says. "Our findings suggest that consumers may gain more significant health benefits by eating more fruits and vegetables and whole grain foods than in consuming expensive dietary supplements, which do not contain the same array of balanced, complex components," says Liu. He notes that the thousands of phytochemicals in foods vary in molecular size, polarity and solubility, which could affect how they are absorbed and distributed in different cells, tissues and organs. "This balanced natural combination of phytochemicals present in fruits and vegetables cannot simply be mimicked by dietary supplements," he explained. Furthermore, Liu notes that the health benefits of consuming fruits and vegetables extend beyond lowering the risk of developing cancers and cardiovascular diseases to include preventive effects for other chronic diseases, such as cataracts, age-related macular degeneration, central neurodegenerative disease and diabetes.
— ANI |
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Censor’s scissors out in Nepal
Kathmandu, March 2 "Unless any publication or broadcasting house acquires information from sources of security bodies, publishing interviews, articles, news, information, reading materials, opinion or personal views that directly or indirectly instigate or support terrorist and destructive activities and terrorism will be punished," said a notice issued by the Ministry of Information and Communication. By prohibiting such news items, the government has just tried to make the information and communication sector systematic so that the morale of the terrorists will not get a boost in the course of dissemination of information, Nepal's Information and Communication Minister Tanka Dhakal claimed. The press should be restrained and responsible and disseminate objective information only, he was quoted as saying by the National News Agency. "This measure is not censorship," he said. "Terrorism can be blunted only if the mass media fulfils its duty and responsibility in a responsible manner."
— PTI |
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Baghdad, March 2
