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Pak to set up relief camps along LoC
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Sharon faces test of strength
Bird flu: Japan to kill 82,000 chickens
Pope John Paul’s car sold for $6,90,000
USA-Delhi direct flight from today
Two Indian doctors Time’s heroes
London most expensive in Europe
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Pak to set up relief camps along LoC
Islamabad, October 31 Talking to reporters here last evening, after visiting the quake-affected areas of Muzaffarabad, along with Saudi Prince Al-Waleed bin Talal, the Prime Minister said crossing over would be allowed at five points across the LoC to provide a chance for two-way movement of the divided families. The five points agreed by Pakistani and Indian officials during Saturday's talks in Islamabad, to be operational by November 7, include, Nauseri-Tithwal, Chakoti-Uri, Hajipur-Uri, Rawalakot-Poonch and Tattapani-Poonch. He said, ''Pakistan is setting up five relief camps at these five crossings where medical and other help and assistance will be available for the Kashmiris''. Food, medical assistance and other relief would be made available to Kashmiris. The Prime Minister appreciated the help and assistance being provided by the world for relief and rehabilitation work in the country's earthquake-hit areas. He said Pakistan was organising a world donors conference on November 19. Meanwhile, Pakistan has said it was ready to allow Kashmiri Pandits visit the famous Sharda Peeth shrine in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir to assess the damage caused to it in the October 8 killer quake. "If they are Kashmiris, they can easily come over through one of the crossing points at the Line of Control that we identified and agreed upon on Sunday," Pakistan Foreign Office spokesperson was quoted as saying by The News.
— UNI |
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Pervez declares LoC irrelevant
Islamabad, October 31 In an interview with Arab News published yesterday, General Musharraf emphasised, ''We should open the LoC. There was a phrase once used by the Indian leadership ... let's make the LoC irrelevant. I am making it irrelevant.'' Calling for the early opening of these points, he said the two countries should try to make
travailing in Kashmir easy. On the Jammu and Kashmir dispute, he said there must be discussions between India and Pakistan, involving Kashmiris, that will lead to results. ''I am for those results...This (opening of LoC) is an opportunity,'' General Musharraf said, adding ''we are spending too much on the military and I am for demilitarisation (in Kashmir).'' He said if they (Indians) agree to demilitarisation, ''we will also be willing to do that. We are very flexible and absolutely open to moving forward to the ultimate solution,'' he stressed. He disagreed that Pakistan had haggled over this (LoC opening) issue, which had originally come from New Delhi.
— UNI |
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Sharon faces test of strength
Jerusalem, October 31 Members of his own Likud party who opposed the Gaza pullout, saying it would encourage Palestinian attacks, have threatened to vote against new cabinet nominations, potentially embarrassing Sharon or even pushing him towards early elections. “It’s time to stop the bickering, the protesting and the struggles and try to unite the Likud, despite the differences in views,” the prime minister told party deputies late yesterday in an attempt to secure their support. Israeli analysts say parliament is expected to vote against the nominations by a slim majority which would be a political embarrassment for Sharon.
— Reuters |
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Bird flu: Japan to kill 82,000 chickens
Tokyo, October 31 Meanwhile, Pacific rim disaster experts met in Australia to discuss how to respond to a possible pandemic. The latest Japanese outbreak occurred on a farm in Ibaraki, just northeast of Tokyo, officials said. The farm was inside a quarantined area where authorities had already found signs of the disease and culled around 1.5 million birds, prefectural livestock farming chief Taro Imai said. Antibody tests showed the chickens had been exposed to a bird flu virus from the H5 family but survived, Ibaraki officials said in a statement. No active bird flu viruses were found, Imai said. Bird flu hit Japan last year for the first time in decades. Officials say the strain that hit the country, H5N2, is less virulent than the H5N1 variety that has ravaged Southeast Asia since 2003 and killed at least 62 people there. Most human cases have been traced to direct contact with sick birds, but health officials fear the H5N1 virus could mutate into a form that is easily transmissible among humans, possibly sparking a deadly pandemic. Eddy Chan, Hong Kong’s deputy secretary for health, welfare and food, said the government would kill all poultry in the territory if the H5N1 bird flu strain is found in chickens at two separate farms.
— AP |
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New avian flu cases found in Romania
Bucharest, October 31 A goose and a swan had both tested positive for the H5 type of bird flu, he said, adding it had not yet been decided whether to send the samples to Britain to determine if it was the virulent H5N1 strain. The Balkan state earlier this month became the first country in mainland Europe to detect the deadly H5N1 virus in poultry in two villages in the Danube delta, Europe's largest wetlands.
— Reuters |
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Pope John Paul’s car sold for $6,90,000
Las Vegas, October 31 “To me, it’s a piece of history,” said Mr John O’Quinn, 62, a personal injury lawyer, who made a fortune in a multi-billion dollar settlement between Texas and tobacco companies in 1998. “What a great human being Pope John Paul was,” Mr O’Quinn, a Protestant Baptist, remarked while asserting that he had a collection of about 600 vehicles. He acknowledged it was the story behind the car, and not the vehicle itself, that prompted him to outbid at least seven other would-be buyers. Built 30 years ago at a Ford plant in Cologne, Germany, the car sold yesterday in what auctioneer Dean Kruse said was original Papal condition — no hub caps, no air conditioning, no radio, but with several nicks and dents. “The car will never be driven,” said Mr O’Quinn, who added that at least temporarily it would be warehoused with his other cars. “But hopefully, in my life, I’ll be able to go back and touch this car and feel the Pope’s spirit. “I’m so glad it will be preserved and be in a major city in the USA,” he added. The seller, Mr Jim Rich, 41, of Sugar Grove, Illinois, bought the car for $102,000 at an auction in the USA in 1996. The car came with what Kruse said were several Papal possessions: carved wooden rosary beads, a box of wooden matches, a candy tin and a dashboard medallion bearing the likeness of St Maria Goretti, patron of youth, young women, purity and victims of rape.
— AP |
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USA-Delhi direct flight from today
Houston, October 31 America’s Continental Airlines will operate daily flights from Newark in New Jersey to New Delhi from November 1 without any stoppages in Europe, thus reducing the duration of the journey to 14 hours. The Indo American Chamber of Commerce of Greater Houston (IACCGH) has congratulated the airliner for starting the first-ever non-stop flight from the US to India. The Chamber said an Alliance of Indo-American Chambers of Commerce (Texas, Atlanta, Georgia & Florida) Trade Delegation will visit India from November 14 to take part in the IACC Indo US Economic Summit in New Delhi. The delegation would promote business opportunities between the two countries and will interact with government officials and industry leaders in Delhi and Mumbai, IACCGH Executive Director Jagdip Ahluwalia said.
— PTI |
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Two Indian doctors Time’s heroes
New York, October 31 Abhay and Rani Bang, founders of the Society for Education, Action and Research in Community Health, are among 18 heroes of Global Health named by the magazine for their work in solving health problems in the developing world. The health programme, adopted in India, Bangladesh, Nepal, Pakistan and parts of Africa, cut child mortality in half for a cost of only $ 2.64 for each child saved, the magazine said in a citation.
— PTI |
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London most expensive in Europe
London, October 31 The price of a basket of 250 mostly branded goods was 5.3 per cent greater in London than the eurozone average, while in Warsaw it was 22 per cent cheaper than the average, according to the study of seven European cities by Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein, a global investment banking firm. Paris came second, 1.3 per cent above the eurozone average, followed by Frankfurt (+0.8 per cent) and Brussels (-0.4 per cent), according to details of the study published today in Financial Times. But the study found that convergence between prices in cities in the eurozone has become greater in the past year. The gap between Paris, the most expensive eurozone city, and Madrid, the least expensive was only 3.8 per cent. A year ago, when the bank did the same exercise, the gap was 7.4 per cent. Other six cities listed cheaper than the eurozone are Amsterdam (-0.6 per cent), Rome (-1.7 per cent), Madrid (-2.5 per cent), Prague (-17.7 per cent) and Warsaw (-21.7 percent).
— PTI |
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Video
Pakistan's Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz has said his country is to set up five relief camps along the Line of Control (LoC) to provide assistance to quake victims in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK).