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Japan for peace, insists on apology
Musharraf flays Geelani’s opposition to bus link
PPP for talks with establishment: Zardari
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36 Indian fishermen arrested
Ex-minister refuses to appear before royal panel
11 m children die before five: report
Conclave begins to elect Pope
Big B unknown in USA
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Japan for peace, insists on apology from China
Tokyo, April 18 Foreign Minister Nobutaka Machimura, who is visiting Beijing, demanded that China condemn and compensate for three weekends of anti-Japanese rage, but his counterpart Li Zhaoxing told him the real issue was Japan’s wartime atrocities. China has not committed to a meeting between President Hu Jintao and Koizumi when they visit Indonesia for an Asia-Africa summit starting Friday, with Beijing saying bilateral relations are the worst since the two nations established diplomatic relations in 1972. Koizumi, asked if he would use a possible meeting to demand an apology, said: “It is better not to make it an exchange of accusations.” “It is fine if the summit meeting is different from the foreign ministers’ meeting,” Koizumi said. “It is necessary to think about not fuelling confrontation. The meeting should be future oriented. We should consider how we can promote friendly ties,” he said. Japanese Foreign Ministry spokesman Hatsuhisa Takashima, speaking in Beijing, stressed that while the demonstrations created a “very uncomfortable situation,” Japan planned no major policy change, in part due to soaring trade between the nations.
— AFP |
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Musharraf flays Geelani’s opposition to bus link
Islamabad, April 18 Asserting that the bus service was agreed to after gauging the popular demand for it on both sides of the LoC, Musharraf told the Pakistan media before leaving for New Delhi to Manila that he has not understood the logic behind the opposition to the bus link. “If someone still is against it, talks about only solution...well, we are heading for solution. What is the logic behind it? This is the demand by people. We have assessed the demands of the people....This a popular move, they want to travel and want to meet relatives. If someone opposes, what is the issue? What to do?,” he said in the media briefing telecast by state-owned PTV. Replying to a question about demand for including Kashmiris in talks, Musharraf dropped an open hint for the Hurriyat leaders saying they should use their “brain” and join the talks with India and Pakistan separately as it is the step in the direction of trilateral talks.
— PTI
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PPP for talks with establishment: Zardari
Lahore, April 18 In the clearest ever message to the establishment, delivered at a news conference at Bilawal House here, he said the PPP was for talks with the institution from which the present rulers derived their strength. In the presence of many party leaders, he said both PPP and the army were patriotic in their approach, although there were ideological differences between them. He said some people, because of their addiction to power, had gone astray and that was the reason the PPP was proposing a dialogue. He made it clear that the offer did not mean the party would go against the aspirations of its supporters or compromise on its principles. Repeating his demand for fresh elections during the current year, Mr Zardari said it would be up to new Parliament to decide whether to accept Gen Musharraf as president without uniform. The establishment was the permanent player while other actors continued changing, he said. Referring to allegations levelled by smaller provinces and some parties that the army belonged to Punjab, Mr Zardari said it was a Pakistani army which belonged to everyone. Alleging that the PPP was deprived of mandate in the 2002 elections, he said the party had avoided agitation in spite of the fact that it had popular support to adopt the course. He said since the PPP was the largest party, it had equally heavy responsibilities to shoulder. Thus, he said, all its policies would be dictated by national interest. He defended all policies pursued by the two former PPP governments, which were prematurely dismissed on various charges. He said if voted to power, his party would again follow people-friendly policies to solve the common man's problems. Disputing the tall claims being made by the rulers about economic prosperity and completion of a number of mega projects, the PPP leader said the growing number of suicides negated the utterances of the government. He said most of the projects or decisions the government was claiming credit for had been initiated by the PPP governments. Referring to the efforts being made by the present rulers to improve relations with India, Mr Zardari said it was the PPP which had taken important steps in that direction during its rule. |
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Zardari’s supporters released
Lahore, April 18 Some 500 workers were bailed out by different courts in Lahore, where Asif Ali Zardari was himself briefly detained after he arrived from Dubai on Saturday, court officials said. The majority of some 30 Pakistan People’s Party MPs, who were detained in Lahore, have also been released, a party spokesman said. Bhutto’s husband was released from an eight-year sentence in December last year after a court granted him bail in the last of a string of corruption and murder charges pending against him. He has spent nearly four months in Dubai, where Bhutto is in self-imposed exile to avoid corruption charges stemming from her two terms as the Prime Minister of Pakistan. Zardari initially described the action against him and the party as a blow to reconciliation efforts with President Pervez Musharraf, but he later said the party would continue its talks despite the crackdown.
— AFP |
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36 Indian fishermen arrested
Karachi, April 18 The fishermen were arrested about 170 km southeast of Karachi, said Lt Cmdr Khawar Hassan Khan, a spokesman for the Maritime Security Agency, which made the arrests. Khan said a ship of the agency that was on a routine patrol in the sea spotted the Indian fishermen about 34 km inside Pakistani waters. — AP
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Gyanendra’s takeover
endorsed
Kathmandu, April 18 “Nepal is as holy for the Hindus all over the world as Vatican City to the Christians, so it is the responsibility of Hindus all over the world to protect and safeguard the Hindu monarch of Nepal,” president of the World Hindu Federation
(WHF), India Chapter, Yogi Adityanath said. Adityanath, who is here to attend the silver jubilee celebrations of the
WHF, told reporters that Maoists were directly attacking the culture and religion of the Hindus so they posed a big threat to the Hindus of Nepal and India. He shared the same platform with King Gyanendra and Queen Komal yesterday at an inauguration programme here to mark the opening of silver jubilee celebrations of the
WHF, the umbrella organisation of the Hindus all over the world. The WHF has set in motion a Shanti Kalash rally in which a silver pitcher containing holy water and blessings from Buddhist, Hindu, Jain and Sikh organisations, will travel to 49 countries, including India, to wish for world
peace. Adityanath said the rally should try to mobilise the Hindus in each country to show their support for the King, adding Hindus in India would organise shows of support for the King. The WHF president and honorary aide to the King, Bharat Keshar Singh said yesterday that under Hindu philosophy the King could be a silent spectator. So the steps taken by him on February 1 were as per the philosophy of the Hindu dharma, he added.
— PTI |
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Ex-minister refuses to appear before royal panel
Kathmandu, April 18 "I have decided not to be present at this unconstitutional royal commission to give explanation on the tender decision to which I have no connection," Prakash Man Singh, central member of the Nepali Congress (Democratic) and Minister for Physical Planning and Construction in the dissolved government, said in a statement today. The royal commission for Corruption Control, appointed by King Gyanendra after the February 1 takeover, had summoned Mr Prakash Man Singh to inquire about the awarding of tender in the Melamchi Drinking Water Project, funded by the Asian Development Bank. "The royal commission was unconstitutionally formed to grill the political leaders who disagree with the February 1 royal proclamation, which was both unconstitutional and anti-democratic," he told mediapersons at his residence at Chhetrapati in Kathmandu. "This is an attempt to assassinate my character and damage my political career, so I will not go to the unconstitutional commission's office for giving explanation, no matter what is the consequence," Mr Prakash Man Singh, said. "The move by the royal commission was politically motivated and out of revenge against those who have different political views in the
current political changes," he said in his statement. The RCCC had earlier grilled six ministers belonging to the dissolved Deuba government on graft charges. However, they have been released on bail. A central committee member of Nepali Congress (Democratic), Mr Prakash Man Singh was arrested along with four other ex- ministers from the office of the NC (Democratic) at Maharajgunj soon after the February 1 royal take over and was released after two weeks. More than 300 members of the NCD including its four central members are still in jail for opposing the February 1 power grab by King Gyanendra. Mr Prakash Man Singh said his party is closely working with other four major parties including the Nepali Congress and CPN-UML to launch a fresh agitation against the royal coup in the first month of Nepalese new year or April-May. The parties are chalking out a road map for early restoration of peace and democracy in the country, he said.
— PTI |
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11 m children die before five: report
Washington, April 18 About 2,000 of these children die in a week, said Francois Bourguignon, the bank’s chief economist. The causes include acute respiratory infection, diarrhoea, measles and malaria, which together account for 48 per cent of child deaths in the developing world, according to the report “World Development Indicators”. “Rapid improvement before 1990 gave hope that mortality rates for infants and children would be cut by two-thirds in the following 25 years,” the report, released yesterday, said. “But progress slowed almost everywhere in the 1990s.” The report said only 33 countries were on track to reach the 2015 goal of reducing child mortality rates by two-thirds from its 1990 levels. It said only Latin America, Europe and Central Asia, might be on track to achieve the target. In India, for example, school attendance rates for the richest, 20 per cent of the population, are twice as high as for the poorest. — AP
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Conclave begins to elect Pope
Vatican City, April 18 In the 20th century, there were eight conclaves. They lasted from two days (1939 and 1978) to five days (1922). The average length of a conclave was just over three days. The number of ballots needed to elect the new pontiff ranged from a low of three in 1939 to a high of 14 in 1922. The average number of ballots needed to select a Pope was just under
eight. — Reuters |
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Big B unknown in USA
New York, April 18 The subject of a week-long film retrospective at New York's Lincoln Center, Bachchan (62), enjoys a vast international fan base from South Asia to the Middle-East and Africa. Among mainstream western audience, including American filmgoers, he remains largely unknown. It's a state of affairs he loses little sleep over. "You know, I just never really expected it," Bachchan said with a shrug, adding that Hollywood had never exerted that much of a pull "I think that every actor who sets off, thinks about his home first. If I was starting off now, I would remain home. That's where my sights would be," he told AFP in an interview. Such was Bachchan's pre-eminence as a movie star in the 1970s and 80s that he appeared to carry the entire Indian film industry on his imposing six-foot, two-inch frame. The adoration of his millions of fans has, at times, verged on religious worship. In 1982, as Bachchan lay in intensive care after an accident on a film set, thousands of persons gathered every day outside the hospital in Mumbai to pray for his recovery. The then Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi visited his hospital bed and one fan ran backwards for around 500 miles as a devotional gesture aimed at preventing his death. Bachchan is dismissive of the "world's greatest film star" tag, which arose from a 1999 BBC online poll that saw him voted Star of the Millennium, ahead of Charlie Chaplin and Laurence Olivier.
— AFP |
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