 |
|
|
Nepal king loses veto power
Palestinian referendum out
For Iraqi women the war has just begun
|
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Three suicides in Guantanamo jail
|
|
Kathmandu, June 11 The new regulation was passed by the lawmakers late last night, according to a parliament notice published today. It authorised the House of Representatives Speaker to certify the passing of any Bill in Parliament. The king will no longer be able to reject Bills and laws passed by parliament, and the lawmakers will not need to seek his approval while signing Bills into law. The king, who was directly ruling the country for 14 months after sacking the government of then Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba in February 2005, handed over power to the seven-party alliance and reinstated parliament in April this year after a 19-day agitation against him. A parliamentary proclamation last month drastically clipped the king's powers and last night's regulation formally eliminated all the authority he once had in parliament. All those ministers, lawmakers and officials who were appointed or sworn in by the king earlier are required to take the oath of office once again before a 15-member special committee of MPs headed by the Speaker. They included the Prime Minister, Speaker, Deputy Speaker, Chairman and Vice Chairman of Upper House, ministers, Opposition leader, Chief of the Army Staff, other senior army officials, ambassadors, and heads of constitutional bodies. The concept of 'King in Parliament' has been abolished through the new law. — PTI
|
|
Jerusalem, June 11 "As chairman of the PLO Executive Committee and President of the PA, I have decided to exercise my constitutional right and duty to hold a referendum over the document of national agreement," Abbas said in a decree. The referendum set for July 26 will ask the Palestiniansto vote "yes" or "no" on the question: "Do you agree with the document of national agreement — the prisoner's document?". Hamas, which won an overwhelming victory over Abbas'Fatah faction at the parliamentary polls in January condemned the announcement saying it will drive a wedge between the Palestinian masses. "The announcement is declaration of a coup against the government", Mushir al-Masri, a Hamas parliamentarian said calling upon the Palestinian masses to boycott it. "It is a decision in the wrong direction. A dialogue without any preconditions is the only solution to the Palestinian problems. The people have expressed there faith in our government and it should be respected", PA Health Minister Bassem Naim told PTI. The Hamas-led government has been cash strapped since its formation due to a crippling sanction imposed by the US and Israel which have demanded that it recognise the Jewish state and shun violence. Abbas sees it as a way to end PA's international isolation which can start the stalled peace process and also bring in the much needed foreign aid. The proposal which calls for a Palestinian state, alongside Israel, on the Gaza Strip, the whole of west Bank and East Jerusalem has been rejected by Israel as an "internal Palestinian matter". — PTI
|
|
For Iraqi women the war has just begun
THE women of Basra have disappeared. Three years after the US-led invasion of Iraq, women's secular freedoms — once the envy of women across West Asia — have been snatched away because militant Islam is rising across the country.
Across Iraq, a bloody and relentless oppression of women has taken hold.Many women had their heads shaved for refusing to wear a scarf or had been stoned in the street for wearing make-up. Others have been kidnapped and murdered for crimes that are being labelled simply as "inappropriate behaviour". The insurrection against the fragile and barely functioning state has left the country prey to extremists whose notion of freedom does not extend to women. In the British-occupied south, where Muqtada al-Sadr's Mehdi Army retains a stranglehold, women insist the situation is at its worst. Here they are forced to live imprisoned behind closed doors only to emerge, concealed behind scarves, hidden behind husbands and fathers. Even wearing a pair of trousers is considered an act of defiance, punishable by death. One Basra woman, known only as Dr Kefaya, was working in the women and children's hospital unit at the city university when she started receiving threats from extremists. She defied them. Then, one day a man walked into the building and murdered her. Eman Aziz, one of the first women to speak publicly about the dangers, said:"There were five people on the death list with Dr Kefaya. They were threatened 'If you continue working, you will be killed.'" Many women are too afraid to complain. But, fearful their rights will be eroded for good, some have taken the courageous step of speaking out. Dr Kefaya was only one of many professional women murdered in recent months. Speaking to The Independent near Saddam's old palace in the middle of Basra, Mrs Aziz, reeled off the names of other dead friends. Three of her university class have been killed since the invasion. Under Saddam, women played little part in political life but businesswomen and academics travelled the country unchallenged while their daughters mixed freely with male students at university. Now, even the most emancipated woman feels cowed. A journalist, Shatta Kareem, said: "I was out driving my car one day when someone just crashed into me and drove me off the road. If a woman is seen driving these days it is considered a violation of men's rights." There is a fear that Islamic law will become enshrined in the new legislation. Ms Aziz said: "In the Muslim religion, if a man dies his money goes to a male member of the family. After the Iran-Iraq war, there were so many widows that Saddam changed the law so it would go to the women and children. Now it has been changed back." Mrs Alebadi estimated that as many as 70 per cent of women in Basra had been widowed by the constant conflicts. "You see widows on the streets begging at the intersections". Ms Aziz said: "Women members of the Provincial Council had many dreams but they were told 'With respect, you don't know anything. This is a world of men. Your view is good but not better.' More and more they just agreed to sign whatever they were told. We have got women in power, who are powerless." Many of the British officers in Basra say they feel "uncomfortable" with the situation. There is a growing fear among educated women, however, that the extreme dangers of daily life will allow the issue of women's oppression to remain unchallenged. In Mrs Kareem's words: "Men have been given a voice. But women will not get their part in building this country."
— By arrangement with The Independent, London.
|
|
Three suicides in Guantanamo jail
Miami, June 10 The military said guards at the camp in Cuba found the two Saudis and one Yemeni not breathing in their cells shortly after midnight and attempts to resuscitate them failed. The deaths threw a fresh spotlight on the camp, which has drawn strong criticism internationally and undermined support for the U.S. war on terrorism that was launched after the September 11 attacks. Guantanamo holds about 460 foreigners captured mainly in Afghanistan where the United States has fought the Taliban and Al -Qaida. The Amnesty International urged again that the camp be closed,joining a chorus of criticism from human rights groups. The U.S. military said the bodies were being treated "with the utmost respect." The three detainees had taken part previously in extended hunger strikes and been force-fed. They all left suicide notes but no details were made public. Kabul: Three Muslims, said to have committed suicide in a Guantanamo Bay prison, would not have violated Islam by taking their own lives and must have been killed by US captors, the Taliban said on Sunday. "We can't accept that they have committed suicide," a purported spokesman for the Islamist Taliban movement in Afghanistan, Mohammad Hanif, told AFP. "No Muslim, no mujahid (holy warrior), can commit suicide. It's banned under Islamic Sharia law," said Hanif, who is often in contact with the media from a secret location. The camp commander said the "war on terror" suspects — a Yemeni and two Saudis — were found dead in their cells yesterday in the US prison camp in Cuba. Hanif said there was a clear difference between committing suicide and carrying out suicide attacks against "infidels". — AFP, Reuters
|
| HOME PAGE | |
Punjab | Haryana | Jammu & Kashmir |
Himachal Pradesh | Regional Briefs |
Nation | Opinions | | Business | Sports | World | Mailbag | Chandigarh | Ludhiana | Delhi | | Calendar | Weather | Archive | Subscribe | Suggestion | E-mail | |
