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N. Korea blames US for stalled talks
Indian admits to bribing UN official
Talks on Sir Creek begin
Nalini Singh slapped in Nepal
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Dubai girl deal lands Indian in trouble Feng shui experts predict a turbulent 2007 Height loss may increase risk of
heart attack
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N. Korea blames US for stalled talks
Beijing, December 22 North Korea’s top nuclear envoy Kim Kye-gwan, in his first press conference, said, “As you know, we are participating in the talks amid continued US sanctions, but the US has called for the halt of the operation of our nuclear facilities and inspections without taking actions on the lifting of the sanctions”. “So, we have urged the US to lift the sanctions before starting discussions on the implementation of the September 19 joint statement,” he added, citing last year’s deal under which Pyongyang agreed in principle to abandon its nuclear programme in return for aid and security guarantees. Top envoys from North Korea, South Korea, the US, Japan, Russia and host China had gathered here since December 18 for the second phase of the fifth round of six-party talks after a 13-month hiatus after Pyongyang boycotted the parleys, demanding lifting of US sanctions for alleged money laundering. In the absence of a breakthrough over the sanctions issue, delegates to the six-party talks on North Korea’s nuclear programmes wrapped up their discussions and issued a Chairman’s statement, reiterating their resolve that the standoff over the nuclear issue should be resolved in a peaceful manner. While the US maintained that the issue of sanction was unrelated to the nuclear disarmament talks, North Korea stuck to its stance and the caused a deadlock, diplomats said. “They (North Korea) need to show some seriousness of purpose on disarmament,” Christopher Hill, US Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific affairs, told reporters. — PTI
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Indian admits to bribing UN official
New York, December 22 "Nishan Kohli, 30, admitted making illegal payments to Sanjay Bahel, a former high-ranking UN purchasing official, as compensation for steering business to Kohli from 1998 to 2003," said Michael Garcia, the US attorney for the Southern District of New York. Kohli faced a maximum of 10 years in prison. Bahel last month pleaded not guilty to related charges. Bahel, from the Indian Defence Auditing Services, was on deputation to the UN. He was suspended from the world body on charges that he bent rules to help Telecommunications Consultations of India (TCIL), represented by Kohli, get contracts worth million of dollars. An inquiry revealed that Bahel got contracts worth $100 million during his posting as chief of commodity procurement for the world body between 1998 and 2003 for TCIL. Bahel allegedly provided Kohli "exceptional access" to inside information on pending UN contracts and acted as a vocal advocate for the companies represented by Kohli. Kohli in return rewarded Bahel by renting him a luxury apartment at a steep discount and later sold it to him for well below its market value. — IANS
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Islamabad, December 22 Chief Naval Hydrographer Rear Admiral B.R. Rao held talks with his counterpart, Surveyor-General of Pakistan Maj-Gen Jamil-ur-Rahman Afridi at Rawalpindi to determine the modalities for undertaking the survey which is expected to be completed by March next year. This will be the second survey to be undertaken by the two parties in the history of the 22-year-long dispute over the marshy strip off the Gulf of Kutch whose determination will enable both countries to finalise their maritime economic zone and intimate the United Nations. The two sides agreed to hold the survey during the talks held in May this year as part of the third round of composite dialogue process in which Sir Creek was one of the subjects being discussed. The first joint survey on Sir Creek had been conducted by hydrographers of the two countries in January, 2005. The two countries have held several rounds of talks at both technical and governmental levels since 1969 on the Sir Creek issue but of no avail. Both sides were keen to retain it as its determination could enable them to claim several hundred kilometres of martime coast line. Its determination was essential as both countries have to notify the martime economic zone to the UN Convention on Law of the Sea to which both Pakistan and India are signatories. The convention requires that all maritime boundary disputes be resolved by 2009 failing which UN may declare them as international waters. Talks would conclude tomorrow after which the two sides were expected to issue a joint statement. — PTI
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Nalini Singh slapped in Nepal
Kathmandu, December 22 Nalini, whose New Delhi-based media company TV Live runs Nepal1 created a furore on Thursday when she allegedly insulted a reporter and was slapped by the victim. Nalini reportedly called Anjana Rawal, a Nepali reporter covering women's issues for the channel, a "bitch" and asked her to "eat" her shoes. "Who do you think you are to be dressing so grandly, a princess?" Nalini reportedly said. "Eat my shoes for lunch, you bitch. All Nepalis are like you." Rawal slapped her and said she would file a defamation suit
on Sunday. "I slapped Singh because not only did she insult me alone but all Nepalis," she said. Nalini has been acquiring a reputation for humiliating employees and forcing several to leave. The wife of a former Nepal1 employee filed a police complaint accusing Nalini of abduction when her husband went missing but later retracted it.
— IANS |
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Dubai girl deal lands Indian in trouble An Indian owning an entertainment company landed in trouble here while trying to hire Nepali girls, apparently to work in hotels in Dubai. Manish Kotharia, owner of Drishti Entertainment Private Ltd, began a recruitment drive from a hotel in Kathmandu with the help of a Nepali agent. He had apparently selected 15 girls and taken their passports when a group of four policemen raided his room in Sundhara area’s Hotel Emperor. The men, including two police inspectors, demanded Nepali Rs 50,000 from Kotharia, threatening him with dire consequences if he did not pay up. They also seized the Nepali girls’ passports and Kotharia’s mobile phone. Though the incident occurred on Thursday, Kotharia did not lodge a complaint with the police. Instead, he left for India. However, the matter came to be known and the four policemen have been arrested, a media report said today. Police say their investigation has been thwarted by Kotharia’s failing to lodge an official complaint. The incident comes as Nepal’s rights groups as well as Maoist guerrillas have been trying to close down the mushrooming dance bars in the capital and key towns, said to be a front for the flesh trade. Frequent police raids find dancers in the nude or even in compromising positions with customers. The girls, most of whom are barely literate, say this is the only means of livelihood left to them after they were forced to leave their home districts due to the 10-year communist war, poverty and lack of job opportunities. Many of them are also abandoned wives or women whose husbands have gone abroad in search of jobs, leaving them to fend for themselves. A well-organised network of traffickers extends from Nepal to India and the Middle East whose modus operandi is to lure Nepali women with lucrative job offers to the Gulf. Many of the girls end up as sex workers, abused and underpaid by their employers.
— IANS
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Feng shui experts predict a turbulent 2007 Forget fund flows and profit predictions, 2007 is about “fire sitting on water”. Buy oil, avoid metals, and don’t get your fingers burnt. Feng shui experts steeped in the ancient Chinese knowledge of geomancy, or natural energies, see a turbulent year ahead for both markets and mankind. “The elements — they are in conflict,” said Raymond Lo, a practitioner for more than 10 years, whose office close to Hong Kong’s Victoria Harbour is considered a repository of positive feng shui energies in this hotbed of capitalism. “Because it’s fire and water, and they’re not in harmony. So therefore next year in January, it’s not so peaceful.” Lo expects a stock market boom in the first half of the year, with Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index likely to soar over 20,000 points, creating an “illusion of optimism” before a steep drop. The market is up 30 percent this year at 19,216 and, along with other Asian bourses struck record highs in 2006. Hard data on the accuracy of feng shui forecasts and their performance against analyst predictions is hard to come by, but Hong Kongers devour books by the city’s celebrity feng shui masters. “I believe in it a lot,” says retail investor Monica Tam, who reckons that in auspicious periods she can buy stocks “with her eyes closed” and still make money. “Before I didn’t, but with each year’s experience and by seeing feng shui masters, I changed my mind.” Another master, Edwin Ma Lai-wah, says investors should focus on stocks harnessing the elemental force of fire, and avoid those vulnerable to it. Oil, given its combustible nature, will be a gainer. Construction and property firms are also in favour. “Oil prices will rise at least 5 percent, because the fire will be fierce, and other sectors related to fire will also rise,” said Ma. Metals such as gold, steel and zinc, top performers this year, could be tempered in 2007. “The fire will dominate them,” he said, along with sectors related to gold, such as financial and banking stocks. Fire is the 2007 force for master Lai Hon-fai as well, but he says wood will moderate the destructive effects. “The wood element will have a secret effect on the fire by adding prosperity. So on the surface things might not be as good as this year, but there’ll still be relatively normal growth.” He says the US benchmark Dow Jones industrial average could drop by 5 percent, with most volatility likely in May and November. Years ending with the number seven have a track record of stock market disaster, Lo warns, referring to the 1987 Wall Street crash and the Asian financial crisis that struck a decade later. “You have to be very careful, the worst could be October ... but it won’t be as bad as 1997,” he said. On the political front, Lo expects strife in the Western world, but few flashpoints in Asia. “There will be turbulence, there will be fights, there will be explosions and clashes. It’s also a year of evolution.” “Asia is comparatively stable, the bad energy is in the North next year, so therefore America and those (Western) countries will more easily have natural disasters and other problems.” He also believes a “sick” energy might arise. “Something we have to be careful of is sickness and health problems. Epidemics could come. We have to worry about avian flu, that kind of thing.”
— Reuters
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Height loss may increase risk of heart attack Men who lose height by three cm or more as they age could face the risk of heart attack, says a British study that suggests they should stay as active as possible into old age. Goya Wannamethee, reader in epidemiology at the Royal Free and University College Medical School in London, and other researchers studied 4,200 men. They found that those who lost three cm in height were 64 percent more likely to die than those who lost less than one cm, although the researchers say they don’t know why height loss seems to be linked with an increased risk of coronary heart disease. The study was part of the British Regional Heart Study, which enrolled men between 1978 and 1980 and then followed them up 20 years later when they were in their 60s and 70s. It’s been well established that shortness is associated with cardiovascular disease so we were interested to see whether height loss itself could influence mortality, the researchers said.
— IANS
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Beijing, December 22
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