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Israeli troops storm settlement
LTTE ready for high-level talks
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South Asian fest in Canada a big draw
Alaska, home of the world’s first global warming refugees
Death sentence of ‘RAW agent’ upheld
Pak prisoner dies in Indian jail
Success trademark of Indians in Belgium
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Israeli troops storm settlement
Gadid (Gaza Strip), August 19 Settlers took to the rooftops in the tiny Gadid enclave shouting “Nazis” as security forces swept in, hours after clearing Gaza’s main anti-pullout strongholds. With the latest poll confirming solid public support for Israel’s first removal of settlements from land Palestinians want for a state, troops rushed to wrap up their toughest tasks before the start of the Jewish Sabbath at sundown. “This is a desecration of everything that is sacred to Jews,” Boaz Puterel (30) said, echoing the belief of ultranationalist Israelis that the Gaza Strip is part of God’s gift to the Jewish people and should never be relinquished. More than 80 per cent of Gaza’s 8,500 settlers have been evacuated under Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s “disengagement plan”, and officials said the operation could be completed by Tuesday, far ahead of schedule. Many of Gadid’s 350 residents had already left, but a few families and dozens of protesters defiantly remained. Columns of smoke rose from piles of burning tyres and debris as security forces took up position at the synagogue, where 100 settlers and supporters locked themselves inside. Negotiations for a resolution were planned after morning prayers. After such talks failed yesterday, troops stormed two synagogues in hardline settlements — one in Neve Dekalim, the biggest Gaza enclave, and the other in the religious community of Kfar Darom, scene of the most frenzied clashes. The police used cranes and water cannon to battle protesters on the roof of Kfar Darom’s house of worship. They fought back with rocks, paint-filled light bulbs and chemical irritants. The army said 31 security personnel were hurt. Pullout opponents were also dragged kicking and screaming from Neve Dekalim’s synagogue after troops moved in.
— Reuters |
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LTTE ready for high-level talks
Colombo, August 19 The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) told peace broker Norway that they had agreed to a request by the Sri Lankan Government to urgently review the truce in the wake of Kadirgamar’s killing, blamed by Colombo on the rebels. LTTE’s cheif negotiator Anton Balasingham told the pro-rebel Tamilnet website that they had responded positively to the request conveyed by Norway on Wednesday. “Balasingham revealed that the talks, facilitated by the Norwegians, would be held in Oslo within the next couple of weeks,” the website said. “The discussions will also focus on the escalating violence in the North-East and other related issues.” Norway’s Foreign Minister Jan Petersen and his deputy Vidar Helgesen had met Balasingham in London on Wednesday while returning home after attending Kadirgamar’s funeral here on Monday. President Chandrika Kumaratunga had told the Norwegians that she wanted an urgent review of the truce after the assassination of the Foreign Minister. The previous high-level contact between the two sides was in March 2003. However, Helgesen said a decision had not been taken on the date or location for the talks to salvage the truce.
— PTI |
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South Asian fest in Canada a big draw
Toronto, August 19 Artistes from around the world descended on Toronto, some specifically to perform at MMM, as the festival is popularly known here. Music performances included urban vibes, traditional, classical, alternative, pop, rock, soul and jazz genres. “We opened the festival with a big outdoor film screening of ‘Bride and Prejudice’,” Abhishek Mathur, festival director, told IANS. The movie was shown at the CIBC stage by the waters and the seats were filled long before the screening. However, being a makeshift open theatre, latecomers could sit by the waterfront and enjoy the movie. Festival goers also had an opportunity to do their shopping for Indian clothes, arts and craft at the more than 100 stalls featured as part of a bazaar during the festival. “This is crazy, but fun!” a visitor said. “This is the first time I’m seeing such a huge crowd at the festival!” It was an apparent success, considering the number of people — more than a 100,000 — who joined the festivity, despite several other summer festivals happening in the city and high heat. Some visitors were there purely to enjoy the Indian cuisine. There were more than 20 food stalls by various restaurants in the city offering barbecued corn on the cob, bhel puri and its family of snacks, dosas of different kinds, vegetarian and non-vegetarian dishes served with rice, and a range of iced drinks, including mango lassi, were vended. “We are hoping to entertain a good, listening crowd, who will enjoy our performance,” Sonal and Simrit Mann, sitarists from Mumbai, said.
— IANS |
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Alaska, home of the world’s first
THE indigenous people of Alaska could become the first global warming refugees as their frozen homeland goes through the quickest defrost since the end of the last Ice Age, some 12,000 years ago. The permafrost on which their houses are built is melting, the sea ice that protects their shorelines from the savage Arctic storms is retreating and the animals on which they have traditionally relied are in decline.
Alaska's native human population --- the Inuit --- first began to voice concern at the end of the 1990s when they saw startling changes to the Arctic environment. First it was the thinning of the sea ice on which they trek in search of early winter game. It made hunting for bearded seals or "ugruks" more precarious with the increased risk of falling through the thinner ice, said Benjamin Neakok, a resident of the north Alaskan outpost of Point Ley. "It makes it hard to hunt in fall time when the ice starts forming. It's dangerous to be out. It's not really sturdy. And after it freezes there are some open spots. Sometimes it doesn't freeze up until January," he said in a testimony given to a report compiled in 1998. Then there was the melting of the permafrost, the permanently frozen ground that the Inuit rely on for support of the wooden piles on which their houses are built. Suddenly the ground began to melt. Some locals began to talk of "drunken forests", caused as the frozen earth beneath Alaska's forests of black spruce turned to mud, resulting in the collapse of trees. In some coastal areas, the retreating sea ice exposed the land to the full force of the harsh winter storms, allowing the sea to erode the land with an increased risk of flooding. "When I moved here, the sea was 40 feet from the house. Now it's about 10 feet," said Joe Braach, the headteacher of the local school at Shishmaref, a town of about 560 residents on a small barrier island off the north-west coast of Alaska. Scientists studying the Arctic are in little doubt that the region is going through a period of dramatic warming — perhaps the most rapid for thousands of years. The Arctic is like a basin of frozen water surrounded by the northernmost coasts of America, Russia, Scandinavia and Greenland, and the permanently frozen ice cap has always retreated during the long polar summer days. But the summer melting period is getting longer.
— By arrangement with The Independent, London. |
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Death sentence of ‘RAW agent’ upheld
Islamabad, August 19 A two-member Bench comprising Justice Hamid Ali Mirza and Justice Muhammad Nawaz Abbasi yesterday dismissed the appeals filed by Singh, state-run APP newsagency reported. An anti-terrorism court of Punjab had awarded him death sentence on five counts which was upheld by the Lahore High Court. He then filed an appeal in the Supreme Court. Singh was arrested by Pakistan security forces at Kasur border on August 30, 1990 when he was reportedly leaving Pakistan after having carried out the bomb blasts. According to the prosecution, Singh had admitted his involvement in various bomb blasts in Pakistan.
— PTI |
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Pak prisoner dies in Indian jail
Islamabad, August 19 “Pakistan High Commission in New Delhi informed the Foreign Office that a Pakistani prisoner, Mohammad Ahmad, who was serving his term in an Indian jail has died in a hospital at Sriganganagar district in Rajasthan,” said an official statement released by the Foreign Ministry. The news came almost a week after Pakistan asked India to release its nationals imprisoned in Indian jails. A Foreign Ministry official said here today that there were a total of 611 Pakistani nationals in Indian
jails. — UNI |
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Success trademark of Indians in Belgium
Brussels, August 19 Indians are just around 9,000, out of a total population of some 10 million, but they have an experience in the country, that is quite different from that of the Indian and other South Asian immigrant communities in Britain. “Indian immigrants are living very peacefully with Belgians. Their capacity to integrate is one of the reasons for their success in all fields,” Sunil Prasad, the driving force behind the Belgian chapter of the Global Organisation of People of Indian Origin and the Brussels-based Europe-India Chamber of Commerce, says. Prasad described the government policy as “very positive”, but went on to express concern “at the exploitation of race in
politics.” — INEP |
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