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Advani, Shaukat for resolving issues in tandem
India, Iceland sign pact on air services
Natwar in Seoul
Villepin named PM of France
Czech oppn for halting EU treaty
Canadian beauty is Miss Universe |
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KFC restaurant torched in Pak, 6 killed
Packed food unsafe?
Kidnapped governor of Iraq province found dead
Saudi work visa cut to 1 year from June 8
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Advani, Shaukat for resolving issues in tandem
Islamabad, May 31 “Any solution to it must carry the aspirations of the people of Jammu and Kashmir. We need to address the wishes of the people. A solution to the Kashmir imbroglio must have the sanction of India, Pakistan and the Kashmiri people,” Mr Aziz told newspersons here after a 45-minute meeting with Mr Advani. Both Mr Advani and Mr Aziz described the meeting as positive and said they discussed the entire gamut of issues, including Kashmir. The meeting was the first engagement of Mr Advani, who arrived here last night on a week-long state visit. Mr Aziz said advancement in overall ties between the two countries had to move in tandem with progress on the Kashmir issue. “India wants to solve all problems, including Jammu and Kashmir. The Prime Minister told me that all those issues had to be sorted out and resolved in tandem and I agreed with that,” the BJP President told reporters. “India is responding positively,” he said, adding that when the BJP-led National Democratic Front (NDA) was in power their stand was that all issues, including Jammu and Kashmir, needed to be resolved. The present UPA government was also pursuing this policy, he added. The resolution of issues had to be dealt with at the government level, Mr Advani said. “As for India, there is a broad consensus on various issues being pursued with Pakistan. Peace process has all the support,” he said. Mr Advani said various issues, including Jammu and Kashmir, opening up of communication and trade, figured in the talks. “The proposal of opening up of the energy corridor to bring gas from Iran through Pakistan to India would further strengthen the linkage and interdependence between the two countries,” Mr Aziz said before leaving on an official visit to Turkey. Mr Advani arrived in Islamabad late last night after his flight from Lahore to Islamabad was delayed by more than one hour due to bad weather conditions over Islamabad. Meanwhile, Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf sought the support of Leader of the Opposition L K. Advani and his BJP in continuing the peace process with India. Advani held talks with General Musharraf for nearly an hour during which they reviewed the ongoing Indo-Pak peace process. They recollected their school days in Karachi, official sources said.
— UNI, PTI |
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India, Iceland sign pact on air services
Reykjavik (Iceland), May 31 The two agreements on air services were signed by Mahesh Sachdeva, Ambassador of India to Norway, and Ambassador Olafur Egilsson. The conclusion of the two agreements coincides with a more open and exponential civil aviation policy in India and Iceland’s growing emergence and importance as a trans-Atlantic hub. The MoU on air services elaborates aspects of air services between the two countries, such as route scheduling, self-handling, and so on. On coming into force, it will facilitate cooperation between aeronautical authorities of both countries on the air service agreements signed today. The two countries also signed an MoU on formalising consultations between the foreign
ministries of both countries. “We believe that there is a dire need to reform the UN structure to make it more compatible with the contemporary realities and make it more democratic and transparent,” Dr Kalam said in his revised banquet speech which was prepared after Iceland offered to co-sponsor the G-4 draft resolution to be presented at the United Nations in the middle of next month. The banquet was hosted in the visiting President’s honour by his Icelandic counterpart Olafur Ragnar Grimsson. Dr Kalam appreciated Iceland’s principled stand and consistent support to India’s candidature for a permanent seat at the UN Security Council and readiness to co-sponsor the draft framework of the G-4 countries. India, Brazil, Germany and Japan, which constitute the G-4 countries, had prepared a draft resolution on expansion which will be placed before the United Nations next month and would require two-thirds majority for adoption by the 191-member body. Hailing the visiting President, Mr Grimsson said: “Your own contribution to the progress of India has indeed been outstanding, based on scientific brilliance and a great respect for the power of human knowledge, but also inspired by the humility and humbleness which are such an admirable aspect of the Indian tradition. President Kalam said India and Iceland can have a ‘’win-win’’ cooperation in the production and clinical trials of drugs to fight various diseases, including the dreaded HIV/AIDS. ‘’Iceland has been endowed with a climate which is extremely congenial for drug production. India has the potential
for carrying out extensive clinical trials in a short time,’’ Dr Kalam, who is here on the third leg of his four-nation tour, said in his address at an international health conference organised here yesterday by Actavis. It was a full house at the first-ever vegetarian banquet in Iceland hosted in honour of President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam even as some guests had to leave due to non-availability of seats in the wake of a large number of people pressing for an invitation to meet him.
— UNI, PTI |
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Natwar in Seoul
Seoul, May 31 Mr Natwar Singh is on a day’s halt here, enroute to the Russian far-eastern port city of Vladivostok, to attend the first-ever stand-alone trilateral meeting of Foreign Ministers of India, Russia and China. He will have a meeting with Mr Ban here tomorrow to review bilateral relations and exchange views on important regional issues, including the situation in the Korean peninsula.
— PTI
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Villepin named PM of France
Paris, May 31 Villepin replaces Jean-Pierre Raffarin, who was made a scapegoat for Sunday’s referendum defeat. Villepin had until now been Interior Minister, and in a spell as Foreign Minister led France’s opposition to the U.S.-led war in Iraq. Villepin, 51, will be charged with giving the ‘’fresh impetus’’ to government policy, which Chirac promised after voters rejected the EU’s new charter, a result seen as a snub of the government’s economic policies. Chirac and Villepin did not immediately name the new Cabinet. The President was due to address the nation later on Tuesday and lay out a policy ‘’road map’’ for the new team, which will hope to govern France until presidential and parliamentary elections in 2007. Villepin had been widely tipped to replace the unpopular Raffarin, whose economic reforms and poor record on jobs were blamed for the scale of Sunday’s referendum defeat. The full government line up is expected to be announced on Wednesday, with some political commentators predicting a slimmed down Cabinet.
— Reuters |
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Czech oppn for halting EU treaty
Prague, May 31 The Civic Democrats (ODS), the largest opposition party, told a news conference ratification of the EU constitution, aimed at making an enlarged Union run more smoothly, ‘’has lost its purpose’’. ‘’The ODS will not enable the useless ratification of a legally invalid document and calls for the government to stop all activities connected in any way to ratification,’’ ODS leader Mirek Topolanek said. The Czech Government has yet to decide how the country would approve the treaty. A majority of French voters, amid strong turnout of almost 70 per cent, voted down the document in a referendum on Sunday. The ODS, well ahead in public opinion polls with a general election slated for next spring, had been calling for parliament to pass a law allowing for a one-off referendum on the subject. Prime Minister Jiri Paroubek’s centre-left coalition government has also considered a law allowing referendums on all manner of subjects — instead of a one-off legal change — as well as ratification through a parliamentary vote. However, it is unclear under the Czech constitution whether a simple majority would be needed to pass the treaty, or whether a three-fifths majority would be required. The government has only 101 votes in the 200-seat lower house.
— Reuters |
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Canadian beauty is Miss Universe
Bangkok, May 31 Miss Puerto Rico Cynthia Olavarria was the first runner-up and Miss Dominican Republic Renata Sone was the second runner-up, Xinhua reported. Glebova, 23, a motivational speaker from Toronto, was picked the winner after answering a final question about what she considered her biggest challenge in life. “I’m the kind of person who looks at the glass half full,” she said, adding that remaining optimistic was most challenging. “I always try to maintain a positive outlook on life.” “I feel like this is all happening too fast and it’s unreal,” a beaming and breathless Glebova told reporters as she waved a Canadian flag. Glebova, who moved to Canada from her native Russia 11 years ago, said after the contest that she hoped to raise awareness about AIDS. An estimated one billion people around the globe watched the final competition. Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra delayed his weekly Cabinet meeting to attend the pageant. The 12-judge panel chose contestants from Mexico, Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic, Venezuela and Canada for the final round. The panel narrowed the field of 81 participants to 15, which included Thapar, a 23-year-old fashion designer from Pune. Thapar had been preparing hard for the contest but failed to make the 10 semi-finalists as the contestants modelled evening gowns and swimsuits. Thailand hopes that hosting the pageant will boost tourism, which was severely hit by the December 26 tsunami last year that killed about 5,400 people in Thailand and some 280,000 in the Indian Ocean rim countries. The contestants, who arrived in Thailand about three weeks ago, have visited tsunami-struck areas along the country’s southern coastline and historic Buddhist temples around the capital
Bangkok. |
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KFC restaurant torched in Pak, 6 killed
Karachi, May 31 Four employees of the restaurant burnt to death while another two froze to death after hiding in the walk-in cold storage, the police said. “It was a very sad scene. When we found the bodies in the freezer one of them had a cellphone in his hand with a missed call from his wife,” Karachi fire brigade chief Azam Ali said. The mob went on the rampage after three attackers, believed to be from a militant organisation, stormed the Shia Madinat-ul-Ilm mosque in Karachi’s Gulshan district during evening prayers yesterday. One of the assailants died in a gunbattle with the policemen who were standing guard at the door of the building. The other blew himself up and the third sustained a serious head injury, apparently in a fall, city police chief Tariq Jamil said. Two worshippers and a policeman also died in the attack, while 21 persons were hospitalised, four of them in a critical condition. Hospital officials said the surviving attacker had regained consciousness. “He identified himself as Jamil,” senior police investigator Manzoor Mughal said. Mughal said the man said he was affiliated to the Jaish-e-Mohammad, banned by President Pervez Musharraf in 2001.
— AFP |
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Packed food unsafe?
London, May 31 Scientists working with animals have earlier demonstrated that BPA is potentially damaging to health. But the new study is the first to suggest even extremely weak levels of exposure in the womb may be harmful. A team of US researchers, led by Prof Ana Soto from the Tufts University School of Medicine in Boston, Massachusetts, administered tiny doses of BPA to groups of pregnant mice. The mice were treated during the latter half of their pregnancies and for about four days after giving birth. Their offspring were examined when they reached puberty. One of the most striking effects of BPA exposure was a large increase in the number and density of terminal end buds, part of the mammary gland's milk-producing structure. It is here that breast tumours typically form. The second major finding was that animals previously exposed to the higher dose of BPA developed mammary glands that were much more sensitive to oestrogen, which fuels the vast majority of breast tumours in humans. Reporting their findings in the latest issue of the Journal of Endocrinology, the researchers wrote: "These correlations suggest that perinatal [shortly before or after birth] exposure to BPA in particular, and to oestrogens in general, may increase susceptibility to breast cancer." Experts believe the findings have alarming implications for human health. An estimated 6 billion pounds of BPA is produced each year around the
world.—IANS |
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Kidnapped governor of Iraq province found dead
Baghdad, May 31 Laith Kubba told a news conference the body of Anbar governor Raja Nawaf was found tied to a gas canister in a house near the town of Rawa two days ago. He was discovered after the US forces conducted a routine sweep through a neighbourhood and met fierce resistance from insurgents in the house. The authorities do not know how Nawaf died but it was likely that concrete fell on him after the clashes triggered explosives in the house, Kubba
said. Nawaf and four bodyguards were kidnapped on the road from the town of
Qaim, near the Syrian border, to the city of Ramadi just days after he became governor of
Anbar, the heartland of Iraq’s insurgency. — Reuters |
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Saudi work visa cut to 1 year from June 8
Dubai, May 31 The new measure has been taken after reports of misuse of visa extensions for the purpose of forgery and illegal visa transactions, he added. “Many firms have disappeared after receiving visas or their ownership has been transferred to others,’’ Arab News reported Gosaibi as saying. The new move comes as part of Saudi Arabia’s efforts to reduce dependence on foreign workers and create more employment opportunities for Saudis by slashing the number of foreign workers to 20 per cent of its total population within 10 years.
— UNI |
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London, May 31
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Enron case: conviction overturned Washington, May 31
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