W O R L D

India asks US to lift curbs on Cuba
United Nations, October 30
Strongly opposing unilateral measures by countries, which impinge on the sovereignty of others, India has asked the United States to lift the economic, commercial and financial embargo imposed on Cuba 46 years ago.

Security Council for more women in UN
United Nations, October 30
Taking note of the importance of women in the conflict prevention and in peace-building activities, the UN Security Council has asked the United Nations to appoint more women at senior positions, particularly as special representatives.

Obama tries to gain ad-vantage
The 2008 US presidential election will be recorded in the annals of history as one of many firsts. On Wednesday night, Sen Barack Obama added two more to this expanding list when the Democrat presidential nominee aired a half-hour TV commercial.

Valerie, a 26-year-old female African elephant picks Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama picture over Republican presidential candidate John McCain at Six Flags Discovery Kingdom in Vallejo, Calif, on Wednesday. The elephant is the symbol of the Republican Party. — AP/PTI

Obama takes 7-point lead on McCain
Washington, October 30
Democrat Barack Obama has opened a 7-point lead over Republican rival John McCain with five days left in the race for the White House, according to a poll released today. Obama leads McCain by 50 per cent to 43 per cent among likely voters in the three-day national tracking poll, building on his 5-point advantage yesterday.

Pak quake toll soars to 215
Death toll in Tuesday’s earthquake in Balochistan reached 215 as the area received more than 150 aftershocks in the past 36 hours. Provincial capital Quetta and surrounding districts suffered another powerful tremor on Thursday afternoon causing more damage to buildings though no fresh casualties were reported.

17 injured in bomb explosion in varsity
Madrid, October 30
A car bomb exploded in a car park near the University of Navarre in the northern Spanish city of Pamplona today, injuring 17 people, officials said. No telephone warning was received before the bomb exploded at about 1100 hrs local time (1530 IST), smashing windows in a university building and damaging nearby cars, officials and witnesses said.

The Exorcist best-ever horror film
London, October 30
The Exorcist, William Friedkin’s 1973 iconic movie, has been voted the best horror film ever made, according to a new poll of British filmgoers published today. Stanley Kubrick’s “The Shining”, the 1980 film remake of Stephen King’s classic novel, was placed second in the survey, followed by Ridley Scott’s 1979 movie Alien.

India asks US to lift curbs on Cuba

United Nations, October 30
Strongly opposing unilateral measures by countries, which impinge on the sovereignty of others, India has asked the United States to lift the economic, commercial and financial embargo imposed on Cuba 46 years ago.

Intervening in the General Assembly debate over a resolution asking Washington to lift the economic embargo, Indian delegate Rajeev Shukla criticised the American domestic laws, which prohibit foreign companies as well as foreign subsidiaries of the US companies from doing business with Cuba.

The resolution, which is recommendatory in nature, has been routinely discussed and adopted by the 192-member Assembly for the past 17 years and ignored by the US.

The domestic US laws like the Cuba Democracy Act of 1992 and the Helms-Burton Act of 1996 have enhanced the territorial reach of the embargo, Shukla said adding that India supports categorical rejection of such laws by the international community.

He regretted that Washington have not respected the repeated calls by the Assembly against imposition of laws and regulations with extra-territorial impact and all other forms of coercive economic measures.

“Despite the repeated calls of the General Assembly, its resolutions remain unimplemented in contravention of world opinion,” he emphasised, adding that the embargo, through its extra-territorial effects, is adversely affecting the Cuban people and the development efforts of the country.

UN votes in favour

Foes and friends of the US joined with full force in the UN General Assembly to denounce Washington for continuing to defy the world opinion asking it to lift the 46-year old economic embargo against Cuba.

For the 17th consecutive years, the 192-member Assembly urged the US to lift its economic, commercial and financial embargo, but it would have little impact on Bush administration, which is expected to ignore it as it had done with previous 16 resolutions.

As many as 185-members, including European Union states, voted for the resolution which was opposed by the US, Israel and Palau. Micronesia and Marshall Islands abstained. The past year’s resolution was carried by 184 votes to four with one abstention.

Both presidential candidates, who are seeking votes of the exiled Cuban community especially in Florida, oppose lifting of the embargo. But Democratic nominee Barack Obama has indicated he might ease parts of the sanctions. However, Republican John McCain intends to keep it in tact.

Unlike Security Council resolutions, the ones adopted by the Assembly are not enforceable and are recommendatory in nature.

Moving the resolution yesterday, Cuban foreign minister Felipe Perez Roque described the embargo as “illegal and unjust” and said the new US President would have to decide whether to continue the failed policies of President George Bush. — PTI

Security Council for more women in UN

United Nations, October 30
Taking note of the importance of women in the conflict prevention and in peace-building activities, the UN Security Council has asked the United Nations to appoint more women at senior positions, particularly as special representatives.

In a statement yesterday evening, ambassador Zhang Yesui of China, who holds the Security Council presidency for the month, strongly condemned all acts of violence committed against women and girls during and after armed conflicts and called on the member states to bring perpetrators to justice.

Earlier, a top UN official told the council that a comprehensive and sustainable peace is not possible in post-conflict situations unless women’s security and participation is a primary objective for peacekeepers.

Gender issues must be addressed in conflict mediation as well as in the deployment of peacekeepers, and women must participate in promoting peace and security, UN Development Fund for Women executive director Ins Alberdi said.

“This is particularly important in conflicts in which sexual violence is used as a tactic of war,” said Alberdi, participating in the debate on women, peace and security.

“If abuses of women’s rights are tolerated through de facto impunity for perpetrators, efforts to restore the rule of law lose their credibility,” she told the 15-member panel.

She warned the council that if direct measures were not taken by national authorities to prevent the widespread and systematic of women, the violence would spill over in the post-conflict environment.

“We know that in some contexts attacks on women increase after conflict. If countries and the international community do not respond decisively to violence against women, they raise the cost of peace-building,” warned Alberdi.

However, despite their successes, women continue to be marginalised and ignored, said the secretary-general’s special adviser on Gender Issues and Advancement of Women, Rachel Mayanja. — PTI

Obama tries to gain ad-vantage
Ashish Kumar Sen writes from Washington

The 2008 US presidential election will be recorded in the annals of history as one of many firsts. On Wednesday night, Sen Barack Obama added two more to this expanding list when the Democrat presidential nominee aired a half-hour TV commercial - the first of its kind in the history of American elections - and for the first time in this election cycle campaigned with former President Bill Clinton, with whom he has had a strained relationship.

Clinton and the man who hopes to follow in his footsteps appeared at a joint rally in Kissimmee, Florida, on Wednesday night. The former President has been criticised for being lukewarm in his support for Obama, who defeated Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton in a tight primary race.

The Florida rally - a virtual love fest - erased all criticism of Clinton. “Barack Obama represents America’s future, and you’ve got to be there for him next Tuesday,” Clinton told a wildly cheering crowd, adding, “Folks, we can’t fool with this. Our country is hanging in the balance. And we have so much promise and so much peril. This man should be our President.”

Obama, referring to Clinton, responded: “In case all of you forgot, this is what it’s like to have a great President.” The senator said of the two Clintons: “I am proud to call them my friends.”

Florida, which cost Clinton’s Vice-President, Al Gore, the election in 2000, is once again a crucial state in the election. Clinton urged supporters to vote and then “find the people who are still teetering and wavering, and tell them as to why they ought to be with us.” Gore and his wife Tipper are expected to campaign with Obama this week in Florida.

Also campaigning in Florida on Wednesday, McCain questioned Obama’s national security credentials. “The question is whether this is a man who has what it takes to protect America from Osama bin Laden, Al Qaida and the other great threats in the world,” McCain said, adding, “He has given no reason to answer in the affirmative.”

Obama’s advt was shown on seven news channels: CBS, Fox, NBC, BET, MSNBC, TV One and on Spanish language channel Univision. The advts, which cost about $3 million, featured interviews with Americans talking about difficulties in their lives and endorsements for Obama from political and business figures.

In the advt, Obama says, “I will not be a perfect President. But I can promise you this - I will always tell you what I think and where I stand.”

All major polls show Obama leading his Republican opponent, Sen. John McCain, by margins ranging from slender to comfortable. The latest Quinnipiac University survey showed Obama with a nine-point lead, 51-42, over McCain nationally. A Pew Research Center poll showed Obama with a 16-point lead. In troubling news for the Republican, Obama is also ahead in some states President George W. Bush won in 2000 and 2004.

Obama discussed his advt in an interview with Jon Stewart on the “Daily Show.” “At this stage everything that needs to be said has probably been heard by a lot of voters, and what you want to do is just remind them one more time, ‘Here’s what I’m going to do,’ not oversell, and let people make up their own minds,” he said.

While polls show Obama commanding a comfortable lead over McCain, the Democrat, well know for being superstitious, told supporters: “Don’t believe for a second this election's over.”

Obama could become a victim of the so-called Bradley effect, which gets its name from the black Los Angeles mayor, Tom Bradley, who while ahead in polls lost his bid to become the Governor of California in the 1980s. White voters, who had initially said they supported him, were unable to bring themselves to vote for a black man. Obama dismissed the significance of the Bradley effect in the 2008 election saying on the “Daily Show” that white voters had “not received that memo.”

In his advt, Obama noted: “In six days, we can choose hope over fear and unity over division. The promise of change over the power of the status quo. In six days, we can come together as one nation, and one people, and once more choose our better history.” McCain dismissed the ad as a “feel-good commercial.”

Obama takes 7-point lead on McCain

Washington, October 30
Democrat Barack Obama has opened a 7-point lead over Republican rival John McCain with five days left in the race for the White House, according to a poll released today.

Obama leads McCain by 50 per cent to 43 per cent among likely voters in the three-day national tracking poll, building on his 5-point advantage yesterday. The telephone poll has a margin of error of 2.9 percentage points.

It was the second consecutive day Obama’s lead has grown as the two-year presidential battle draws to a close. McCain is struggling to overtake Obama’s lead in every national opinion poll and in many battleground states.

“This is not good news for McCain. The race was tightening for a few days, but now it is going back the other way,” pollster John Zogby said. — Reuters

Pak quake toll soars to 215
Afzal Khan writes from Islamabad

Death toll in Tuesday’s earthquake in Balochistan reached 215 as the area received more than 150 aftershocks in the past 36 hours.

Provincial capital Quetta and surrounding districts suffered another powerful tremor on Thursday afternoon causing more damage to buildings though no fresh casualties were reported.

Rescue and relief operations for the affected people were augmented on the second day but left several thousand affected people still waiting for aid. Angry mobs blocked the road between Quetta and Ziarat to claim relief supplies carried by trucks.

Officials said 1,700 tents have been sent to Ziarat district and more are being dispatched. Governor Magsi visited Ziarat, the worst hit district where about 45,000 people are estimated to have been affected.

The affected people demanded more tents and blankets as Meteorological Department Office forecast that cold weather is likely to intensify in the next two days.

NGOs working in the quake affected districts said that Ziarat, Loralai, Pishin and Khanuzai districts have suffered losses but Ziarat and Pishin are the worst affected. Scores of villages in these two districts have been totally decimated. Hundreds of houses and buildings in various areas collapsed in the earthquake. Army, frontier constabulary and civil administration were also involved in the rescue and relief operations.

According to the US Geological Survey and the earthquake review center, Peshawar, the centre of the epicentre of the quake was Koh Chiltan, 60 km from Quetta.

17 injured in bomb explosion in varsity

The Exorcist best-ever horror film