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Residents flee as Hurricane Katrina moves in
Annan welcomes completion of Iraqi draft constitution
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Iraq war is not winnable,
Reuters soundman killed in Baghdad
Deuba challenges conviction in SC
Russia apologises to detained Senators
Swazi princess whipped for refusing to turn down music
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Residents flee as Hurricane Katrina moves in
New York, August 29 The weather department warned that New Orleans which has a population of more than one million and other areas hit by the storm could be uninhabitable for weeks and high rise and apartment buildings would sway and could even collapse as the Mayor issued an unprecedented mandatory evacuation order yesterday. Forecasters have also warned that the potentially catastrophic category five storm could stir up a 28-foot wall of water which could overflow the city and parts of the state of Louisiana. Conditions along the coast were already deteriorating as highways were jammed with people trying to get out of the way of the storm. The city is about six feet below the sea level. “All windows would be blown out. Airborne debris will be widespread and could include heavy items like household appliances,” officials said. Those staying on to brave the hurricane were asked to stay above the third floor and away from windows. President George W Bush has urged people living in the path of the hurricane to take the storm extremely seriously and follow orders to evacuate to higher ground. Acknowledging that a large number of people, many of them stranded tourists, would be unable to leave, the city has set up 10 places of shelter, including the Superdome arena.
— PTI |
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Annan welcomes completion of Iraqi draft constitution
United Nations, August 29 In a statement released yesterday, Mr Annan also appreciated the “earnest efforts” made by all political entities under “difficult circumstances in which this process (of drafting the constitution) took place.” The Secretary-General’s appeal comes in the context of reservations expressed by Sunnis on the draft Constitution and impending referendum in which a negative vote in three provinces would mean its rejection and restarting of the process all over again. Mr Annan “urges all Iraqi communities and political entities to continue to work together in a spirit of national reconciliation, through a fully inclusive, transparent and participatory political process in the period leading to the national referendum, when the Iraqi people will decide on their new constitution,” the statement said. Iraqi President Jalal Talabani said yesterday that Iraq’s draft constitution was ready to be put a vote in the October 15 referendum, despite Sunni Arab objections. Mr Annan said he was pleased that the UN Assistance Mission for Iraq (UNAMI) and its constitutional team had been able to provide the necessary support to the Constitution-making process adding that he had asked his Special Representative Ashraf Qazi to continue efforts to promote national dialogue and consensus-building among all Iraqi communities.
— PTI |
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Iraq war is not winnable, says expert
Washington, August 29 After a month in Iraq, he returned home, ‘‘certain that this war, like Vietnam, will never be won … Since, in my judgment, we were wrong to go in, I’m afraid there’s no good way to get out’’. In an attempt to understand the concept of winning the war in Iraq, the author asks: “What would ‘winning’ in Iraq mean, anyway? A democratic society that’s free to elect an anti-American, pro-Iranian, fundamentalist Islamic government? A land of gushing oil wells feeding international oil company profits at US taxpayers’ expense? Shias, Kurds and Sunnis joining hands to end terrorism around the world?” Like Vietnam, says Mr Simons, the Americans do not understand Iraq. “The truth — that Iraq was not a terrorist haven before we invaded, but we’re making it into one today — has been thickly painted over with unending coats of misinformation.” Comparing the two wars, the author notes that ‘‘where 392 Americans were killed in action in Vietnam from 1962 through 1964, the first three years of the war, (and 58,000 by the time of the US withdrawal in 1975), after two years in Iraq we have nearly 1,900 American killed in action. Where two million Vietnamese were killed by the war’s end, we have no idea how many Iraqis have died since we unleashed ‘shock and awe’. Is it 10,000, 20,000, 30,000? More?” Mr Simons says that this ‘‘blithe American disregard’’ for their lives infuriates Iraqis. He warns that what American failed to understand in Vietnam – ‘‘that people who want foreign occupiers out of their country are willing and prepared to withstand any kind of privation and risk for however long it takes – are failing, once again, to grasp in Iraq’’. Discussing his experience in Iraq, the author says that in a country where planes have to make emergency landing to avoid being hit by the enemy’s rockets and where American soldiers and citizens have to be protected by Humvees and helicopters when going out in the streets, ‘‘there can be no military solution’’. The author also notes that some American soldiers in Iraq are most bitter about their perception that the Bush administration’s effort to wage the war on the cheap applies only to them, while private contractors grow rich. Arguing that there’s no ‘‘good way’’ to quit Iraq, the author says that if America stays, the ‘‘insurgency’’ continues. If it leaves, the insurgency will most likely expand into an all-out civil war, the fragmenting of Iraq and the intervention of Iran, Turkey and Syria, followed by the collapse of promised democracy in West Asia: a kind of reverse domino theory. The author believes that the Bush administration will leave this mess for the next administration, which may find equally difficult to deal with it. He quotes a senior US diplomat in Iraq as saying that if the US is serious about establishing democracy in Iraq, it would take two generations of soldiers fighting there. “That’s 40 years. You may want to pass that along to your grandchildren,” warns the author. |
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Reuters soundman killed in Baghdad
Baghdad, August 29 The Iraqi Police said the two, both Iraqis, were shot by US forces. A US military spokesman said the incident was being investigated. The cameraman was being held and questioned because of “inconsistencies in his initial testimony,” he added. Waleed Khaled, 35, was hit by a shot to the face and at least four to the chest. “A team from Reuters news agency was on assignment to cover the killing of two policemen in Hay al-Adil; US forces opened fire on the team and killed Waleed Khaled, who was shot in the head, and wounded Haider Kadhem,” an Interior Ministry official quoted the police incident report as saying. |
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Deuba challenges conviction in SC
Kathmandu, August 29 Deuba and former minister Prakash Man Singh moved the Supreme Court seeking a review of the July 26 verdict of the Royal Commission for Corruption Control (RCCC) which had convicted them of corruption in the Melamchi drinking water project, a statement issued by Deuba’s party Nepali Congress (Democratic) said. The two were taken in custody four months ago. The RCCC had convicted Deuba and Singh of irregularities while awarding a contract for the construction of access road of the project and had slapped two-year imprisonment and a fine of Rs 5.6 crore on each of them. Challenging the constitutionality of the RCCC that was constituted by King Gyanendra after the royal powergrab, Deuba and Singh, in their separate petitions filed yesterday, urged the apex court to declare the panel verdict null and void and order the government not to implement it. Deposed Prime Minister Deuba in his appeal alleged that the panel verdict was against the principle of natural justice, was politically motivated and aimed at grilling politicians who opposed the February 1 takeover, according to the statement. The people of Kathmandu will ultimately suffer from the baseless action taken against us in the Melamchi water project which aimed to improve the drinking water supply system for the capital, Deuba said in his appeal. Deuba alleged that the anti-graft commission had failed to produce any evidence to prove its allegations of corruption and loss to the government over the project.
— PTI |
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Russia apologises to detained Senators
Kiev, August 29 Senators Richard Lugar, an Indiana Republican and chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and Barack Obama, an Illinois Democrat, were delayed for three hours at an airport in Russia’s Ural Mountain city of Perm yesterday. Eventually allowed to leave, they arrived late yesterday in the Ukrainian capital. “We are not certain as to why or the particular activity that caused that delay,” Lugar said. “We are pleased that our flight was able to continue to Kiev, albeit three hours later,” he added.
— AP |
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Swazi princess whipped for refusing to
Ezulwini Valley (Swaziland), August 29 Princess Sikhanyiso, 17, told the Times of Swaziland, a palace official whipped girls, including beauty queen Miss Swaziland, at the party as a punishment after they refused to turn down the music. She was pictured showing her bruises. Thousands of bare-breasted virgins will dance for Africa’s last absolute monarch in today, Reed Dance ceremony, which King Mswati III has used to choose new brides. Critics say the ancient ceremony, meant to celebrate womanhood and virginity, has become little more than a shop window for the 37-year-old king to choose young brides. The official, who was charged with supervising the princess and her friends ahead of the ceremony, denied he had whipped the girls, the paper said.
— Reuters |
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