W O R L D

Hurricane Wilma pounds Mexico’s Yucatan
Playa Del Carmen, Mexico, October 22
Hurricane Wilma relentlessly pounded Mexico’s Caribbean coast on Saturday, destroying homes and flooding beach resorts as it meandered slowly over the Yucatan peninsula.

Palm trees buckle under heavy rain and strong winds as Hurricane Wilma approaches the resort town of Cancun in Mexico's state of Quintana Roo on Friday. Roaring waves pounded Mexican beach resorts and thousands of tourists were evacuated to escape the wrath of Hurricane Wilma, which gathered strength in the Caribbean on its way to Florida. — Reuters photo

NATO troops to arrive in quake-ravaged Pak
Islamabad, October 22
The North Atlantic Treaty Organization today said it was flying in mobile headquarters and a battalion of light engineers next week to clear roads in order to reach inaccessible areas in northern Pakistan and the PoK region, still blocked after the October 8 earthquake.

Iraqi President not opposed to death for Saddam
Rome, October 22
Iraqi President Jalal Talabani said he was not opposed to death for ousted dictator Saddam Hussein, currently on trial for crimes against humanity, but would not sign the decree to authorise it.

Rights watchdog points finger at military
Military discriminates in relief distribution
New York, October 22
Claiming that lack of coordination between army and civilian authorities was hampering relief efforts in PoK, a US-based human rights watchdog has accused Pakistani military officials of putting scarce tents and other relief supplies in storage rather than handing them out to the needy.

Bird flu found in UK, Croatia
London, October 22
The global battle against outbreaks of bird flu was expanding today after officials confirmed cases of the virus in a parrot in the UK quarantine and among swans at a Croatian lake.

Cherie Blair highlights widows’ plight at UN
United Nations, October 22
Cherie Blair, wife of British Prime Minister Tony Blair and president of a trust which educates children of widows in India, has come to the UN to publicise the plight of widows who often face discrimination.

Hurricane Wilma pounds Mexico’s Yucatan

Playa Del Carmen, Mexico, October 22
Hurricane Wilma relentlessly pounded Mexico’s Caribbean coast on Saturday, destroying homes and flooding beach resorts as it meandered slowly over the Yucatan peninsula.

Winds of 120 miles an hour (195 kph) knocked over houses, upturned trees and kept thousands of tourists in cramped shelters.

The storm lost a bit of its punch — it was downgraded to a Category 3 on the Saffir-Simpson scale — but its winds and rains were still powerful enough to cause massive damage and threaten lives. Emergency forces reported no deaths so far.

Metal sheets flew off the roofs of homes in the beach resort of Playa del Carmen and spun dangerously through the streets.

“It’s a monster. It is roaring all the time,” said Guadalupe Torroella in the low-lying resort of Cancun, where the sea rushed onto the land and flooded international hotels.

At least five flimsy homes had collapsed in Mexico’s Playa del Carmen but their residents were among the tens of thousands who had already fled to damp shelters.

Wilma was still dumping torrential rain over a wide chunk of the Yucatan peninsula whose resorts are famous for turquoise seas and white sand. It was just 9 miles (15 km) from Cancun early Saturday and was drifting northward.

The stalled storm has battered Playa del Carmen, Cancun and diving center Cozumel for the past 36 hours and was due to hang over the area until at least Saturday night.

Wilma dumped 23 inches (59 cm) of rain on Friday on Isla Mujeres island, an unprecedented downpour for Mexico.

“We are talking about a record hurricane as far as rain is concerned,” said meteorologist Alberto Hernandez Unzon. He said Wilma was unusually big with a diameter of 500 miles (800 km).

The town hall was littered with debris with windows blown out and furniture tossed onto office floors. Five prisoners escaped from a nearby jail into the jungle after a fence blew down. — Reuters

NATO troops to arrive in quake-ravaged Pak

Islamabad, October 22
The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) today said it was flying in mobile headquarters and a battalion of light engineers next week to clear roads in order to reach inaccessible areas in northern Pakistan and the PoK region, still blocked after the October 8 earthquake.

“Time is of the essence and NATO is trying to rush in more supplies and open up roads, before the winter sets in,’’ NATO Deputy Assistant Secretary General Ambassador Maurits Jochems told.

He said the strategic airlift operation of relief supplies to Pakistan was “something unprecedented” in NATO’s history and was part of an international effort to help the country deal with the disaster.

He said the deployable headquarters, to be manned by 50-member staff, would liaise with the Pakistani authorities and UN for logistic operations and movement of helicopters.

“NATO will start its second air bridge operation and lift 10,000 tents from UNHCR warehouse to Islamabad,” he said.

Mr Jochems said the relief supplies are being brought in the country on the request of the government of Pakistan and the UN and this was the first time that NATO was providing humanitarian assistance to a country outside the 26 country military alliance.

He said NATO is also sending in a mobile, multinational medical unit to supplement the UN hospitals besides three water purification plants. — UNI

Iraqi President not opposed to death for Saddam

Rome, October 22
Iraqi President Jalal Talabani said he was not opposed to death for ousted dictator Saddam Hussein, currently on trial for crimes against humanity, but would not sign the decree to authorise it.

“I will not sign, neither his sentence nor that of anybody else,” Mr Talbani told Italian newspaper Il Corriere della Sera, before adding, “I didn’t say that I would be opposed to this sentence”.

“I will take a day off (the day a decree has to be signed). The two other vice presidents can sign, if they want to. We have already acted in this way more than a dozen times,” the Iraqi President said.

Mr Talabani had indicated at the beginning of the month that Saddam Hussein deserved to “die a hundred times”.

The death penalty was reintroduced in Iraq on June 30, 2004 after being suspended in March 2003 by former US administrator in Iraq, Paul Bremer.

A defence lawyer connected to the Hussein trial, Sadun al-Janabi was abducted on Thursday by men wearing police and army uniforms and found shot dead a day later in an impoverished northern Baghdad neighbourhood. — AFP

Rights watchdog points finger at military
Military discriminates in relief distribution

New York, October 22
Claiming that lack of coordination between army and civilian authorities was hampering relief efforts in PoK, a US-based human rights watchdog has accused Pakistani military officials of putting scarce tents and other relief supplies in storage rather than handing them out to the needy.

In a statement, Human Rights Watch, whose representatives are monitoring relief efforts in Pakistan, claimed it was told by officials in charge of dispersing relief supplies, that tents and other emergency supplies were being stored instead of being distributed.

Officials at the site were quoted as saying that this was being done so that they would be able to avoid problems when senior military and civilian officials demand supplies that otherwise would not be available. One official said that he would be fired if he handed out the tents.

“Tents are the difference between life and death in PoK,” said the Brad Adams, Asia director of HRW. “It is essential for the public to know that aid is being handled in a non-arbitrary, non-discriminatory manner,” he said.

“Tents are now the most important commodity (in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir). But they are being used for power and patronage by military and civilian authorities that control the territory,” Ms Asma Jahangir, Chairperson of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, told HRW.

But Pakistan’s chief army spokesman, Maj. Gen. Shaukat Sultan, rejected what he called “a totally baseless and wrong report.”

“At present there is no need to store, and there is no place to store these things, which we desperately need at this point in time to save tens of thousands of people rendered homeless due to the massive destruction,” he said. — PTI

Bird flu found in UK, Croatia

London, October 22
The global battle against outbreaks of bird flu was expanding today after officials confirmed cases of the virus in a parrot in the UK quarantine and among swans at a Croatian lake.

A parrot that died in quarantine in the UK tested positive for the H5 strain of the bird flu virus. The bird imported from South America arrived in the UK last month and had been held with a consignment of birds from Taiwan, officials at the British Agriculture Ministry said.

Chief Veterinary Officer Debby Reynolds did not want to speculate whether the bird could have had the lethal H5N1 strain, which has killed more than 60 persons in Asia since 2003. That strain has recently spread into Turkey and Romania, which also reported a new suspected case yesterday.

“I don’t intend to speculate on the N-type until I have formal, official confirmation of this,” Reynolds told a press conference.

Croatia also said further tests were needed to determine if the virus detected in the dead swans was the H5N1 strain, feared to be the precursor of a human pandemic that could kill millions.

The discovery of the six dead swans prompted the European Union authorities in Brussels to announce they were preparing to ban imports of live poultry and poultry products from the Balkan country. — AFP

Cherie Blair highlights widows’ plight at UN

United Nations, October 22
Cherie Blair, wife of British Prime Minister Tony Blair and president of a trust which educates children of widows in India, has come to the UN to publicise the plight of widows who often face discrimination. She got immediate support from UN Secretary General Kofi Annan.

A prominent lawyer, Blair is president of ‘The Loomba Trust’ which educates the children of widows in India who are often disempowered because of cultural traditions. The trust is promoting June 23 as “International Widows Day” to spotlight the injustices to women who’ve lost their husbands. — AP