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Food prices spark riots in Mogadishu
Bypoll postponement stirs fresh trouble
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Pak Taliban ban music on mobiles
UN panel all set to leave Nepal
EU too blames India, China
for rising
food prices
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Laura Bush calls on India to help
Burma
The Burmese government would be more likely to accept offers of help from India than it would from the United States, first lady Laura Bush said on Monday.
Laura spoke to reporters at the White House as details of destruction wreaked by Typhoon Nargis in Burma trickled in and the death toll skyrocketed. “I think India can help,” she said. “India is close, on the border there. I think there are a lot of ways they could help and get help there quickly, and maybe the Burmese government would accept it more readily from the Indian government than they do from the US government.” Laura said cyclone Nargis had affected more than 2 million persons, and according to the Burmese media, killed thousands. “The aftermath has left cities paralysed, families separated and houses and businesses destroyed,” she said. According to the Burmese government, the death toll from the cyclone is more than 15,000 persons, with at least 10,000 killed in the township of Bogalay alone. Laura said the US was prepared to provide an assistance team and much needed supplies to Burma, “as soon as the Burmese government accepts our offer.” “The government of Burma should accept this team quickly, as well as other offers of international assistance,” she said. The US Embassy in Burma has issued a “disaster declaration” in the country and authorised the release of $250,000 for cyclone relief efforts, State Department deputy spokesman Tom Casey said on Monday. A disaster relief team is standing by, Casey said, but the Burmese government had not given permission for the team to enter the country. Laura chastised the Burmese government, saying the lack of warning before the deadly cyclone hit was the latest example of “the junta’s failure to meet its people’s basic needs.” Monday was not the first time the first lady had spoken about Burma. Her interest in Burma was piqued by Aung San Suu Kyi’s writings and the incarcerated Burmese opposition leader’s personal story. “I see the need is for the people in Burma to be - for the world to pay attention to the people of Burma, and for the world to put pressure on the military regime,”she said. She called on India, China and Burma’s “fellow ASEAN members” to “use their influence to encourage democracy” in a country ruled by a secretive military junta.
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Food prices spark riots in Mogadishu
Mogadishu, May 6 Hundreds of youths barricaded roads, stoned vehicles and burned tyres in parts of the bombed-out Somali capital demanding that traders accept the worn-out Somali notes from residents desperately in need of food and other essentials. “I’m hungry and yet cannot even buy food,” Abdifatah Hussein, 25, told Reuters holding a bunch of Somali shilling notes. “I fear we might start eating one another. We will never stop protesting until traders accept the notes.” Many shopkeepers have rejected the old notes, which are still legal currency, saying wholesale traders and currency traders will not take them. They are mostly demanding dollars, or newer Somali shillings. Somalia’s shilling is valued at about 34,000 to the dollar, and many blame the nearly 150 percent fall in value over the past year to counterfeiters who mint the notes and then exchange them for dollars. That factor has ramped up inflation already sparked by rising food prices, and has been a simmering problem across Somalia for the last six months. Though agriculturally fertile, the violence and anarchy in Somalia makes it dependent largely on Local authorities and traders held crisis meetings in Mogadishu on Tuesday in a desperate move to quell the growing anger among residents of one of the world’s most impoverished and well-armed cities. On Monday, a young man was killed when thousands of Somalis protested over the food traders refusal to take the old currency notes blamed for the spiralling inflation, the country’s worst in many years. The Horn of African country has been without any kind of real government since the 1991 ouster of a dictator. An interim administration in place since late 2004 is busy fighting an insurgency and is largely unable to address the daily needs of its citizens. — Reuters
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Bypoll postponement stirs fresh trouble
THE Pakistan Election Commission’s decision to defer byelections has generated fresh mistrust in Pakistan’s turbulent politics with unanswered questions on who initiated the move and the motive behind it. The PML-N took no time to point the finger at the President for continuing with his intrigues to thwart the mandate of February 18 elections, though the PPP understandably did not name anybody but was equally emphatic that it was a conspiracy against the elected government. The villain of the piece, in EC secretary Dilshad’s words, was the NWFP government, which painted a dire picture of the law and order situation in the province. “The situation is so alarming that it is impossible for the provincial government to hold elections at this stage”. While there was no mention of any written request from other provinces, only the NWFP government was singled out by the EC. It said the commission’s provincial chapters had said the condition in their area was equally unsuitable for elections. However, the NWFP government maintained a discreet silence till late in the evening when it dropped another lethal explosive of the day. It was the federal and not the NWFP government that wanted the postponement, said a press release from Chief Minister Amir Haider Hoti. Hoti’s office said Rehman Malik had called the chief minister on telephone telling him that three provinces had agreed to the postponement of byelections. He wanted the NWFP government to join the move, which it did, apparently quite enthusiastically giving strong reasons in writing. Despite disclaimer, the NWFP government did not come unscathed for being too naïve in a move that has done lot of damage to the Awami National Party (ANP) which leads the provincial government. It is apparent that the chief minister was shell-shocked by the violent countrywide reaction to what he says was an innocent response without much deliberations to the request from the centre. When he realised the serious political implications of his naiveté, he issued the statement much to the utmost embarrassment of the federal government. Meanwhile, the PML-N and the ANP, on Tuesday demanded action against advisor on home affairs, Rehman Malik, for manipulating the postponement of elections.
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Pak Taliban ban music on mobiles
Islamabad, May 6 A spokesman for the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan, Maulvi Faqir Muhammad said, the organisation would not allow commuters to play music in their cars or use musical ring tones on mobile phones. Muhammad has warned that violators will be punished according to Shariah or Islamic laws, Geo News reported. The ban comes close on the heels of a directive by the Pakistani Taliban leaders asking men to grow beards within two months.
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UN panel all set to leave Nepal
Kathmandu, May 6 According to a report posted by The Kathmandu Post, a leading English daily in Nepal, the panel reached the decision to leave the country as they received indications from senior politicians that the government may not extend their term after July 22. It has also asked its local staff to be ready to lose their jobs after July and start exploring other jobs. Source said chief of the political affairs department John Norris, chief of administration department Kartsen Harrel, deputy chief of mission Tamrat Samuel and chief arms monitor Jan Eric Wilhelmsen have already left Nepal while about 250 others are in the process of checking out.
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EU too blames India, China for rising food prices
London, May 6 European Union Commissioner for Agriculture and Rural development Mariann Fischer Boel said change in dietary habits in India and China was responsible for spiralling global food
prices. “Those who see biofuels as the driving force behind recent food price increases have overlooked not just one elephant standing right in front of them, but two,” she
said. “The first elephant is the huge increase in demand from emerging countries like China and India. These countries are eating more meat,” she said.
The top EU official’s comments came days after US President George W Bush joined US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice in blaming the rising prosperity of India’s huge middle class for the spiralling global food prices.
— PTI
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