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Serbian Press blames UN court for Milosevic ‘murder’
Afghan ex-President survives attack, |
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No breakthrough in WTO talks
Defiant Iran raises temperature on nuclear dispute
UK designing secret N-warhead: report
Benazir, Shahbaz meet in Dubai, call for fair elections
2,000 protest over
prophet's cartoon in Multan
India, Oman to boost defence ties
Drink red wine for a better smile
Australian ban on uranium sales to India to
stay Qaida suspect held in Afghanistan
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Serbian Press blames UN court for Milosevic ‘murder’
Belgrade, March 12 The early editions of the dailies devoted up to eight pages of coverage on yesterday's death of Milosevic in his UN court cell in The Hague, Netherlands, where he had been on trial for more than four years. "The Hague killed Milosevic," said the front pages of both Press and Glas Javnosti, against black backgrounds bearing large pictures of the former Serbian strongman. "Murdered," said Kurir, another of the Balkan state's lurid dailies, basing its story on an interview with a local doctor who had carried out a medical check-up on Milosevic in November. "Milosevic was very ill while leaders of the New World Order wanted the former Serbian president to disappear because they were involved in the trial they couldn't get out of," the doctor, Vukasin Andric, was quoted as telling Kurir. The same doctor told the Vecernji Novosti newspaper that "Milosevic was a nightmare for the tribunal". "They wanted to kill him at any price in the awareness that with his death, they would hide the real truth," Andric said. The Politika newspaper, which was the mouthpiece of Milosevic's regime in the 1990s but has rebuilt its reputation since his overthrow by popular uprising in 2000, said his death meant he would "never be proclaimed guilty". — AFP
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Afghan ex-President survives attack, blames Pak
Kabul, March 12 Sibghatullah Mojadidi, who also chairs the Senate was being driven on a busy main road when attackers detonated a car laden with explosives near his vehicle. He appeared at a news conference with bandages on his hands which he said covered burns caused by the blast and blamed Pakistan's Inter Services Intelligence (ISI) for the attempt on his life. ''Our biggest enemy today is Pakistan's ISI,'' he said, adding that the network ''was behind all of the attacks'' carried out by the Taliban and other militants in Afghanistan. Pakistan's Foreign Ministry rejected the charge. Mojadidi's comments follow repeated complaints by the Afghanistan Government that militants plan and organise attacks from sanctuaries inside Pakistan. Pakistan, which officially ended its support to Taliban after the September 11, 2001 attacks on the USA, says it does all it can to stop cross-border movement by militants. — Reuters
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Saddam to be hanged immediately if guilty
Baghdad, March 12 Saddam and seven co-defendants are currently on trial for crimes against humanity in connection with the killing of 148 villagers from Dujail where Saddam escaped an assassination attempt in 1982. "If the court passes a death sentence on any of the defendants in the Dujail case, the law is clear, the sentence must be carried out within 30 days following the appeal," Jaafar Mussawi said.
— AFP/AP 40 killed in blasts
At least 40 people were killed and 95 wounded in three apparently coordinated car bombs at two markets in Baghdad's Shi'ite district of Sadr city on Sunday, the police said. It was one of the worst days of violence in the Capital in recent months. Two car bombs exploded in one market while a third blew up almost simultaneously at
another. The Police said they had discovered a fourth car bomb at another market and defused it. Sadr city is a stronghold of radical Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, who commands the Mehdi Army militia force. The district in eastern Baghdad has been relatively free of violence in the last couple of years. Ten persons were killed in a series of mortar blasts and roadside bombings in Baghdad earlier today.
— Reuters |
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No breakthrough in WTO talks
London, March 12 Commerce and Industry Minister Kamal Nath, who represented India at the two-day Group of Six (G-6) meeting which concluded last night, said that during the discussions he told the developed countries clearly that "there is no question of compromising India's agriculture sector. India has 300 million poor people earning less than a dollar per day. This round is to lift the poor people and their standard of living. There is no formula yet on the card. There is only hope," he told newsmen. India was opposed to the question of market access which upset subsistence farming, he noted. The G-6 meeting was attended by the US, Brazil, the European Union, Japan and Australia, besides India to discuss issues relating to the ongoing Doha Round of multilateral trade negotiations of the WTO. European Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson, who chaired the talks, noted they had a "good meeting so far ...Our job is to build consensus. We don't expect to make a breakthrough." He claimed they had made progress in a number of areas but declined to
elaborate. — PTI |
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Defiant Iran raises temperature on nuclear dispute
Teheran, March 12 The comments by Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki and his spokesman came days before Iran’s nuclear drive, alleged by the United States to be a cover for weapons production, is due to be discussed on the UN Security Council. Mr Mottaki, whose country has vehemently defended its right to carry out sensitive uranium enrichment, threatened that Iran could quit the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, which governs the peaceful use of nuclear energy. “If we reach a point where the existing mechanisms do not provide for the right of the Iranian people, then the policies of the Islamic Republic of Iran would be possibly revised and reconsidered,” Mottaki told reporters, in response to a question over whether Iran would consider leaving the NPT. “At the moment we believe that there is a chance for different sides to continue the negotiations,” he added on the sidelines of an international conference on energy and security in Asia. Iran also said the Russian compromise proposal - which would see Iran enriching uranium on Russian soil - was no longer on its agenda now that the nuclear case is being handled by UN Security Council. “The conditions have changed now, the Russian proposal is not on the agenda. The Islamic republic will not give up its rights,” foreign ministry spokesman Hamid-Reza Asefi told reporters.
— AFP |
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UK designing secret N-warhead: report
London, March 12 The government has been pushing ahead with the programme while claiming that no decision has been made on a successor to Britain's Trident nuclear deterrent, 'The Sunday Times' reported. Work on a new weapon by scientists at the Atomic Weapons Establishment at Aldermaston in Berkshire has been under way since Tony Blair was re-elected as Prime Minister last May, and is now said to be ahead of a similar US research, the report claimed. The aim, according to the report, is to produce a simpler device using proven components to avoid breaching the ban on nuclear testing. Known as the Reliable Replacement Warhead (RRW), it is being designed so that it can be tested in a laboratory rather than by detonation, the paper said. "We've got to build something that we can never test and be absolutely confident that, when we use it, it will work," one senior British source told the
newspaper. — PTI |
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Benazir, Shahbaz meet in Dubai, call for fair elections
Lahore, March 11 “The meeting has been very useful. We demanded free and fair elections in which leaders of the mainstream parties should be allowed to participate,” the former Punjab chief minister told The Dawn after the meeting. Senator Ishaq Dar of the
PML (N) and PPP leaders Qasim Zia and Nisar Khuhro also attended the meeting. A few weeks ago, former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif had gone to the UAE to offer condolences over the death of the Dubai ruler, but a meeting between the two rivals-turned-allies could not take place because Ms Bhutto was preparing to go to the United States. Now the two former prime ministers will be meeting when the PPP leader visits London. However, no date has been set. According to Mian Shahbaz Sharif, he and the PPP chairperson were of the view that US President George Bush had showered numerous favours on India, giving nothing to Pakistan. This, he said, had brought tremendous embarrassment to Pakistan. Answering a question, the PML-N president said his meeting with the PPP chairperson had established once again that
the two parties were united in the struggle for restoration of democracy. He said both sides reiterated that they would not repeat mistakes of the past and would not get involved in conspiracies whenever either of them got an opportunity to rule. Amir Wasim adds from Islamabad: PML-N’s information secretary Siddique Farooq told The Dawn that Ms Bhutto and Mian Shahbaz had agreed in principle to convene a meeting of the ARD in London to work out a joint plan of action. Mr Farooque said Ms Bhutto and Mian Nawaz Sharif would hold talks in London before the formal ARD meeting. It may be mentioned that Mian Nawaz Sharif has convened a meeting of his party’s Central Working Committee in London on March 24
and 25. A source in the PPP told Dawn that Ms Bhutto had asked the party’s secretary general, Raja Pervez Ashraf, and MNA Chaudhry Aitzaz Ahsan to meet her in Dubai by March 21. |
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2,000 protest over
prophet's cartoon in Multan
Multan, March 12 The protesters in the central city of Multan carried banners calling for an economic boycott of countries where the cartoons were published. "Death to US", "Death to Denmark" and "Down with Israel" read some of the slogans. During the rally a lawyers' association announced a reward of USD 1,66,666 for the death of a cartoonist. "I announce a cash award of 10 million rupees on behalf of the (district) Bar Association to anyone who kills the
cartoonist", Syed Athar Shah Bukhari, president of the Bar Association, told the protesters. "We are ready to lay down our lives for this sacred cause," Rao Zafar Iqbal, local leader of Pakistan's largest religious party Jamaat-i-Islam said. Five persons died in Pakistan last month during violent protests against both the cartoons and the United States. Muslims consider all images of the prophet to be
blasphemous. — AFP |
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India, Oman to boost defence ties
Dubai, March 12 The establishment of the committee comes within the framework of a memorandum of understanding signed recently by the two sides. The panel is headed by senior officials of the two defence ministries. The decision on Saturday came after talks between visiting Indian Defence Minister Pranab Mukherjee and Sayyid Badr-bin Saud al Busaidy, Oman's Minister for defence affairs. Ashok Kumar Attri, India's ambassador to the sultanate, attended the talks. Mukherjee, who arrived here Friday, met Yusuf bin Alawi bin Abdallah, Oman's minister for foreign affairs, to discuss regional and international developments, as well as ways of enhancing bilateral relations. The Indian minister expressed satisfaction at India-Oman cooperation in defence-related matters following the signing of the memorandum of understanding in December. The two countries have been cooperating for some time now in military and defence-related matters, and Mukherjee praised Oman for its cooperation in biennial joint naval exercise.
— IANS |
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Drink red wine for a better smile
Forget apples or mouthwash --- a glass of Bordeaux may be the best thing for your teeth. Scientists have found that certain compounds in red wine could play a role in preventing gum disease and tooth loss. The findings were presented at the annual meeting of the American Association for Dental Research in Orlando, Florida, yesterday.
Researchers from Laval University in Quebec, Canada, studied the effect of extracts from Bordeaux wines on different types of periodontal diseases, which affect the gums and bone around the teeth. Periodontitis affects more than two-thirds of adults over 50 and one in seven people aged between 21 and 50. The diseases can often lead to tooth loss if left untreated. The scientists looked at polyphenols, compounds that are found in the skin and seeds of grapes. When wine is made from grapes, the alcohol produced by the fermentation process dissolves the polyphenols. White wine does not contain as many polyphenols because the production process involves removing the skins after the grapes have been crushed. When extracts of Bordeaux wine were used to treat periodontal bacteria in laboratory conditions, the Quebec scientists found that the polyphenols had a "significant inhibitory" effect on the growth of the bacteria. They concluded that the compounds could help to prevent the spread of gum diseases. However, the experts also found that polyphenols can have a toxic effect on other cells in the mouth, and warned that more work was needed to discover how to harness the benefits from red wine extracts without the risks. Excess alcohol intake is known to increase the risk of mouth cancer. But red wine has been shown to have a number of health benefits, including reducing the risk of heart disease, cancer and Alzheimer's disease, again because of the polyphenols it contains. Red wine has also been found to be a good source of fibre, which can help to prevent bowel cancer. Last month, Italian scientists found that feeding fish a certain polyphenol in red wine, resveratrol, extended their lives by up to 60 per cent. Scientists are now working on a pill that could deliver the compound in a safer, though obviously less pleasant, way than by drinking red wine.
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