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Nepal frees two Communist leaders
Tension mounts in US as North Korea fires missile
Pak committee report on big dams delayed
Ammunition dump blast leaves 28 dead
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Nepal frees two Communist leaders
Kathmandu, May 2 The government withdrew security personnel last night from the residence of CPN-UML General Secretary Madhav Kumar Nepal, who was put under house arrest immediately after the February 1 power grab by King Gyanendra, party sources said. Nepal was put under house arrest along with Nepali Congress President Girija Prasad Koirala, who was released a couple of weeks ago. A CPN-UML Standing Committee member Amrit Bohara was also freed from house arrest, the sources said. Meanwhile, the district administration office, Tanahun handed over a warrant to Poudel yesterday extending his custody by another three months. Poudel was also arrested on February 1 and put under custody in Damauli prison under Public Security Act for three months. Similarly, jail term of the ex-Minister and CPN-UML standing committee member Ishwor Pokharel, who is in detention in Saptari jail, was also extended by another three months. The Communist leader called upon all political parties to “unitedly launch a movement against authoritarian rule to restore complete democracy by agreeing on a common minimum agenda.”
— PTI |
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Tension mounts in US as North Korea fires missile
Washington, May 2 South Korean intelligence officials were quoted on Monday by the official Yonhap news agency saying they believed a surface-to-ship guided missile with a range of 100 miles was fired from the North Korean city of Hamhung, about 100 miles northeast of the capital, Pyongyang. The intelligence officials said it might be part of routine military exercises and that it did not appear to violate a 1999 moratorium on long-range missile testing. White House Chief of Staff Andrew Card, speaking on several Sunday news shows, said the United States was not surprised by the launch because North Korea has conducted similar launches in the past. But he expressed concern that North Korea might be seeking to arm their missiles with nuclear weapons. North Korea conducted similar short-range missile tests in 2003 during a period of heightened tension with the United States. A military expert in Seoul said the weapon fired on Sunday was most likely the same type of Chinese-designed “Silkworm’’ missile launched previously. This latest firing again comes amid deteriorating US-North Korean relations. The apparent missile launch comes on the eve of a conference at the United Nations on the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty. North Korea and Iran are expected to be high on the agenda. North Korea experts said that Sunday’s apparent firing had little military significance, but was more likely a political statement expressing Pyongyang’s displeasure with the United State By arrangement with the
LA Times-Washington Post. |
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Pak committee report on big dams delayed
Islamabad, May 2 Mr Abbasi, said the sources, met Federal Minister for Water and Power Liaquat Ali Jatoi on Saturday and sought some more time. He informed the Minister that he required time to fine-tune the report. Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz had directed the Ministry of Water and Power in the first week of April to ask Mr Abbasi to submit his report before April 30. The Ministry had also been asked to provide all the relevant documents and minutes of the committee meetings to the PM’s secretariat. Accordingly, the Ministry had written to the TCWR chairman to finalise the report before the deadline. He was told that he would have to give presentations to different forums on the report so he should also prepare for such briefings. The sources said the members of the committee were not happy with the way Mr Abbasi was finalising the report. A former chairman of Wapda and the committee’s member from the NWFP has objected to the procedure of finalisation of the report. He has informed the government and the committee chairman that the report would not be acceptable to the members. He asked Mr Abbasi to convene a meeting of the committee and present the report for discussions before it was submitted to the government.
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Ammunition dump blast leaves 28 dead
Kabul, May 2 “The whole neighbourhood around the ammunition dump has been destroyed,” said Interior Ministry spokesman Lutfullah Mashal. The cause of the blast at Pajga village in Baghlan province, 120 km north of the capital Kabul, was being investigated, he said.
— Reuters |
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Apathy may cost party dear,
Blair warns partymen
London, May 2 While he was already making preparations for an immediate Cabinet reshuffle and radical programme of legislation, the Prime Minister was concerned that a surge in support for the Liberal Democrats over Iraq could cut his majority. “The economy is the central question in this election,” Blair told newsmen this morning, before embarking on a three-day tour of districts where the Labour’s grip is under threat. The Liberal Democrats, the only major party to oppose the US-led invasion of Iraq, said the war and Blair’s credibility were the most important issues for voters. The Labour retains a strong lead in opinion poll. The Populus survey for The Times newspaper put the Labour on 42 per cent, 13 points ahead of the main opposition Conservatives on 29 per cent and the Liberal Democrats on 21 per cent. But Labour’s lead is narrower among those who are certain to vote. The latest MORI poll found that among definite voters, the Labour had 36 per cent support, compared with 33 per cent for the Conservatives and 22 per cent for the Liberal Democrats. The Labour fears that apathy, coupled with former supporters switching to the Liberal Democrats, can undermine their vote and hand seats to the main opposition Conservatives. Meanwhile, with just three days to go to the polls, hectic betting is on indicating a 78-seat Labour majority in the May 5 British general elections - less than half the 161-seat majority the party got in the 2001 elections — a leading daily reported today. The Labour has seen a decline in its majority in the last seven days after reports about the Iraq war and revelations that Prime Minister Tony Blair had committed Britain for the Iraq war almost six months earlier.
— PTI |
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Eat ice-cream, be
happy!
London, May 2 Neuroscientists at the Institute of Psychiatry here scanned the brains of people eating vanilla ice cream. They found an immediate effect on parts of the brain known to get activated when people enjoy themselves. These include the orbitofrontal cortex, the “processing” area at the front of the brain, reports the Guardian Unlimited. “This is the first time we’ve been able to show that ice cream makes you happy. Just one spoonful lights up the happy zones of the brain in clinical trials,” said Don Darling of Unilever. The scientists used a functional magnetic resonance imaging machine - scanners developed to investigate the effects of brain damage and disease - to watch blood flowing to activated brain areas when people swallowed ice cream. Scientists are now discussing the probabilities of using the imaging machine to study brain activity when lies are told and when people fake illness in a bid to investigate the emerging field of social neuroscience. Doctors have already used scans to show activity in regions associated with deception - distinguishing successfully between people hypnotised into being unable to move a leg and others pretending not to be able to do so.
— IANS |
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Kathmandu, May 2
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