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Updated on January 08, 2003 |
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These clips are sponsored by the Indian American Center for Politcal Awareness.
--- South Asian News, September 6, 2002 --- (International)
The lifting of the ban on the LTTE by the Sri Lankan government evokes mixed reactions, both nationally and internationally - India categorically states that it would not lift its ban on the Tamil rebel group. Four senior Kashmir separatist leaders, Abdul Gani Bhat, Maulvi Mohammad Abbas Ansari, Sajjad Lone and Shabir Shah are placed under house arrest by police just hours before Mr Bhat was to leave for peace talks in Delhi. India's privatisation minister Arun Shourie warns that if India is too slow with its economic reforms China's economic strength might be translated into military strength.
Africa
N/A
Americas
* Lifting of rebel ban in Sri Lanka met with mixed reactions (The News Mexico)
Asia Pacific
* Foreign governments to retain ban on Tamil Tigers (The Star Malay)
* Second group of Pakistani prisoners return from Afghanistan (Japan Today)
* 15 feared dead after boat capsizes in Nepal (Japan Today)
* India opposes armed action against Iraq (Xinhuanet)
* 15 killed in Jammu, Kashmir (Xinhuanet)
* India to complete E-Courts project by 2003 (Xinhuanet)
* 7 anti-govt guerrillas killed, 16 surrender in Nepal (Xinhuanet)
Europe
* Kashmir separatists detained (BBC) (Swiss Info)
* Election Candidate Shot Dead in Indian Kashmir (Reuters)
* Tigers welcome ban end (BBC)
Middle East
* India opposes armed action against Iraq (IRNA)
* 179 enter fray for second phase of polling in J&K (IRNA)
* Pakistan condemns bid on Karzai's life (IRNA)
* Sinha lambasts Pakistan's leader (Gulf News)
* 'Voters must decide if I am a patriot or plunderer' (Gulf News)
* Lanka to go ahead with statute reforms (Gulf News)
* Furore over lifting of Tiger ban (Gulf Daily News)
* Even after 18 years tears haven't stopped in Bhopal (Arab News)
* India wants extradition of US citizen (IRNA)
* Iajuddin Ahmed elected unopposed (Gulf News) (IRNA)
* India not to lift ban on LTTE (IRNA)
* India sends assistance to North Korea (IRNA)
Editorial
N/A
Business/Technology
* Indian minister's warning over China (BBC)
* Sri Lanka looks to foreign investors (BBC)
* Pakistan earns 12.5 mln dollars from gemstones export (Xinhuanet)
Africa
N/A
Americas
* Lifting of rebel ban in Sri Lanka met with mixed reactions
Colombo -- The government's decision to lift a ban on Tamil rebels ahead of peace talks in Thailand was met with mixed reaction on Thursday from political parties and the public. The government took the opposition by surprise by lifting the ban two days ahead of the schedule. It was imposed in 1998 after the LTTE carried out a suicide attack on a sacred Buddhist temple. The main opposition People's Alliance (PA) and the Marxist JVP (People's Liberation Front) - the two largest political parties in parliament with 93 members out of 225 seats - have opposed the lifting of the ban.
http://www.thenewsmexico.com/noticia.asp?id=34563
Asia Pacific
* Foreign governments to retain ban on Tamil Tigers
Colombo -- The Sri Lankan government cleared a major obstacle to peace talks by lifting a ban on the island's Tamil Tiger rebels, but officials said yesterday foreign governments would not follow suit. Nationalists had argued against lifting the ban because foreign governments would then ease similar bans that had cut off lucrative funding for the Tigers, but London's Foreign Office issued a statement saying its stance had not changed. "This is entirely a matter for the government of Sri Lanka and does not directly affect the proscription of the LTTE in the UK," it quoted Foreign Office Minister Mike O'Brien as saying. The US embassy was to issue a statement later, but an official there confirmed earlier comments by Ambassador Ashley Wills that the United States would not lift its ban soon. India also said recently the LTTE would remain banned and it was still seeking the extradition of Prabhakaran for backing the 1991 murder of former Indian prime minister Rajiv Gandhi.
http://www.thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2002/9/6/asia/bansri&sec=asia
* Second group of Pakistani prisoners return from Afghanistan
Islamabad -- A second group of Pakistani prisoners held in Afghanistan returned home Thursday on board a Pakistani air force aircraft, Afghan Islamic Press (AIP) reported. The C-130 aircraft carrying a second group of 55 of Pakistanis released by Kabul landed at Peshawar airport in Northwest Frontier Province (NWFP) in northern Pakistan in the afternoon, AIP said.
http://www.japantoday.com/e/?content=news&cat=7&id=229167
* 15 feared dead after boat capsizes in Nepal
Kathmandu -- At least 15 people were missing and feared drowned after a wooden boat capsized in a river in southern Nepal on Thursday, government-run Radio Nepal reported Friday. The boat went down around 3:30 p.m. in the monsoon-fed Lal Bakaiya river of the Rautahat district, about 150 kilometers south of the capital Kathmandu, according to the report.
http://www.japantoday.com/e/?content=news&cat=7
* India opposes armed action against Iraq
September 5 -- As speculation continued on US-led attacks on Iraq, India Thursday reinforced its opposition to armed action against that country, saying it will be "counter-productive." "We have expressed our considered opinion that armed action against Iraq will not help in solving the current problems in thatcountry. It will be counter-productive," an External Affairs Ministry spokesperson told reporters. While supporting implementation of UN Security Council resolutions, India has said there were certain obligations on Baghdad to see that these resolutions were carried out. New Delhi has also made it clear that it was for the Iraqi people to decide on the polity they desire in that country.
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2002-09/05/content_551716.htm
* 15 killed in Jammu, Kashmir
September 5, New Delhi -- At least 15 people, including nine militants and two political party workers, were killed in Jammu and Kashmir since Wednesday night, a police spokesman said Thursday. An infiltration bid was foiled in Kupwara sector where five militants trying to sneak into the valley from across the border were killed at Sarkoli and Kalaroos near the Line of Control Thursday morning, he said. Two militants including a guide were killed in another encounter at Dadasan-Balla in Thanamandi sector of Rajouri district Wednesday night. A security man also laid down his life during the gunfight, thespokesman said.
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2002-09/05/content_551748.htm
* India to complete E-Courts project by 2003
September 5 -- In a bid to speed up the justice delivery system, E-Courts will be established in Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata and Chennai by the end of next year, an official release said Thursday. The aim of E-Courts is to facilitate filing of complaints in courts and payment of court fees and stamp duties by credit cards. In Delhi, the project was scheduled to be completed by March 31, 2003 and in the other three metros it was likely to be completed during the same year. The project, once functional, would help expedite disposal of cases in the metro courts by reducing the time gap between filing of the cases and their disposal, it said.
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2002-09/05/content_551556.htm
* 7 anti-govt guerrillas killed, 16 surrender in Nepal
September 5, Kathmandu -- At least seven anti-government guerrillas were killed Wednesday by government security forces in Nepal, according to a press release issued by the Nepali Defense Ministry Thursday. The seven insurgents were gunned down on the spot Wednesday when the Royal Nepal Army attacked the training camps and hide-outs of the anti-government guerrillas in Bardiya district in western Nepal, the press release said, adding that at least 16 guerrillas surrendered to the government security forces Thursday in the eastern district of Morang.
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2002-09/05/content_551580.htm
Europe
* Kashmir separatists detained
Police in Indian-administered Kashmir have detained four senior separatist leaders. Abdul Gani Bhat, Maulvi Mohammad Abbas Ansari, Sajjad Lone and Shabir Shah were placed under house arrest in the capital, Srinagar, early on Friday. It came hours before Mr Bhat, who heads the main separatist alliance, was to leave for peace talks in Delhi. Two of the detained leaders were due to address anti-election rallies later on Friday. "This [detention] is to make sure they don't move out for anti-poll campaigning in Kashmir," the AFP news agency quoted a police officer as saying.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/2240333.stm
http://www.swissinfo.org/sen/Swissinfo.html?siteSect=143&sid=1319257
* Election Candidate Shot Dead in Indian Kashmir
Srinagar, India -- Suspected Muslim rebels shot dead on Friday a politician contesting state elections in Indian Kashmir in the first killing of a candidate since the campaign began, police said. Militants shot and killed Sheikh Abdul Rehman, an independent candidate in the Jammu and Kashmir state assembly elections, as he was traveling in a vehicle near Handwara, a police official said. No group claimed responsibility for the attack but several guerrilla factions fighting Indian rule have threatened to disrupt the elections and the hardline Jamiat-ul-Mujahideen group has vowed to kill candidates, voters and anyone else taking part.
http://www.reuters.com/news_article.jhtml?type=worldnews&StoryID=1418071
* Tigers welcome ban end
Tamil Tiger rebels in Sri Lanka have welcomed the government's decision to lift the ban on them in advance of peace talks later this month in Thailand. The head of the separatists' political wing, Mr Thamilselvan, told the BBC the ban was the biggest impediment to the peace process. This was the first reaction from the Tamil Tigers to the news that they are no longer banned as a terrorist group in Sri Lanka.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/2240466.stm
Middle East
* India opposes armed action against Iraq
As speculation continued on US-led attacks on Iraq, India on Thursday reinforced its opposition to armed action against that country, saying it will be "counter productive." India's Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson Nirupama Rao said, any such action would only serve to aggravate the sufferings of the Iraqi people. While supporting implementation of UN Security Council resolutions, India has said there were certain obligations on Baghdad to see that these resolutions were carried out.
http://www.irna.com/en/world/.ewo.shtml
* 179 enter fray for second phase of polling in J&K
As many as 179 candidates, including Education Minister and National Conference rebel Aga Syed Mehmood, filed their nominations on the last day of filing papers for the second phase of four stage of Jammu and Kashmir assembly polls on Thursday. Sixty-two aspirants entered the fray from Srinagar and Budgam while 117 filed their papers from Jammu division.
In the first phase there are 161 candidates who have been left in the fray for the first phase assembly elections in Jammu and Kashmir on September 16 in 24 assembly constituencies, where two candidates have already been elected unopposed. Election for 87 assembly segments with 5.6 million electorate will go for franchise in four phases in the state.
http://www.irna.com/en/world/.ewo.shtml
* Pakistan condemns bid on Karzai's life
Pakistan on Friday condemned attempt on the life of President of Afghanistan Hamid Karzai, a Foreign Office spokesman said here. The spokesman for the Foreign Office said that it was a matter of great relief that no harm came to his (Karzai) person. The spokesman reiterated Pakistan's resolve to support the transitional government of Islamic Republic of Afghanistan in its efforts to establish peace and stability in the country, and its rehabilitation and reconstruction efforts.
http://www.irna.com/en/world/.ewo.shtml
* Sinha lambasts Pakistan's leader
Foreign Minister Yashwant Sinha, while firmly squashing any speculation of a meeting between the Indian and Pakistani leaders in New York on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly meeting later this week, saying "the question of a bilateral meeting in New York simply does not arise", was scathing in his attack on forthcoming elections in Pakistan. Sinha said they were a bid by Pakistan's military to perpetuate itself. Sinha told Gulf News in an exclusive interview yesterday that Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Pakistan's President Pervez Musharraf had attended other multilateral summits together such as the one in Almaty and the Saarc meet in Kathmandu, where despite media speculation and pressure from Pakistan, no such meeting had taken place.
http://www.gulf-news.com/Articles/news.asp?ArticleID=62370
* 'Voters must decide if I am a patriot or plunderer'
Pakistan's main opposition leader Benazir Bhutto slammed Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf's government for its "selective and inequitable implementation" of Pakistan's electoral laws, saying in an exclusive interview from London as news broke of the rejection of her nomination papers, that "the regime was stopping her from exercising her democratic rights as a citizen". In a scathing attack on the Musharraf government, which last month introduced several new clauses in the electoral laws that aim to disqualify contestants convicted on corruption charges and those who have held the office of prime minister twice, Bhutto said, "the Pakistani voter should decide whether I am a patriot or a plunderer".
http://www.gulf-news.com/Articles/news.asp?ArticleID=62372
* Lanka to go ahead with statute reforms
The Sri Lankan government yesterday vowed to go ahead with proposed constitutional amendments after they brushed aside opposition protest over the lifting of the ban on the Tamil guerrillas. Hours after the ban was lifted Constitutional Affairs Minister, Prof. G.L. Peiris told reporters that they will now go ahead with proposed constitutional amendments which deal with limiting the powers of the President to dissolve parliament. "We are ready to accept any amendments from the President, but she should accept two basic principles we needed incorporated in the amendments. As long as the government holds the majority in parliament the President should not dissolve it and in the event if there is a feeling that the government's majority has dropped it should be checked in parliament by the way of a vote," Peiris said.
http://www.gulf-news.com/Articles/news.asp?ArticleID=62373
* Furore over lifting of Tiger ban
Sri Lanka braced for protests yesterday, a day after the government lifted a ban on Tamil Tiger rebels in defiance of President Chandrika Kumaratunga, officials here said. Defence Minister Tilak Marapone rescinded the ban on the rebel Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) to clear the way to start Norwegian-sponsored peace talks in Thailand on September 16. The largely symbolic ban was removed by the Colombo government after it secured assurances from the US, Britain and neighbouring India the move would not lead them to remove their own measures against the LTTE.
http://www.gulf-daily-news.com/Articles.asp?Article=31745&Sn=WORL
* Even after 18 years tears haven't stopped in Bhopal
Bhopal -- Eighteen years later, the tears haven't stopped. Gasping, wheezing and barely able to walk, thousands of the "living dead", survivors of Bhopal gas disaster, relive their nightmare every day. President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam visited a special hospital for victims in this central city yesterday to find people still reeling under the effects of one of the world's worst industrial disasters that killed about 3,000 people outright and thousands more later. Kalam urged hospitals officials to ensure facilities were made available to survivors. "Apart from medicines, apart from hospitals, certain human values have to come in a big way to remove the pain," said Kalam during a visit to a hospital built with funds from a trust set up by Union Carbide.
http://www.arabnews.com/Article.asp?ID=18382
* India wants extradition of US citizen
India on Thursday said that it was preparing all legal papers for the extradition of Union Carbide chairman Warren Andersan, who is a US citizen. "We have asked the concerned agencies to prepare everything possible for the extradition of Warren Anderson," an official spokesperson for India's Ministry of External Affairs told IRNA. Anderson is guilty of crime under the Indian penal code, which metes out punishment for causing death due to negligence. India's posture is being seen as bargaining with US in the currently political scenario in the subcontinent. India and US has an extradition treaty.
http://www.irna.com/en/world/.ewo.shtml
* Iajuddin Ahmed elected unopposed
Professor Iajuddin Ahmed has been elected unopposed as the new president of Bangladesh. The Election Commission (EC) yesterday declared Prof. Ahmed president as there was no other candidate for the presidential election which is scheduled to be held on September 16. President-elect Prof. Iajuddin Ahmed will take the oath at Bangabhaban, the presidential palace, at 7.30pm today.
http://www.gulf-news.com/Articles/news.asp?ArticleID=62374
http://www.irna.com/en/world/.ewo.shtml
* India not to lift ban on LTTE
September 5, New Delhi -- India Thursday made it clear that it was not going to lift ban on the Liberation Tiger of Tamil Elam (LTTE). India's Foreign Ministry spokesperson Nirupama Rao said categorical 'no' when asked about Indian government stand on the lifting of the ban on the LTTE. "India still considers the LTTE as terrorist organization," she said.
http://www.irna.com/en/world/.ewo.shtml
* India sends assistance to North Korea
September 5, New Delhi -- Government of India has dispatched 2000 metric tons of white rice as part of humanitarian assistance to the Democratic People's Republic of Korea in view of the existing food shortage in that country. According to the Ministry of External Affairs sources, the assistance was in response to a request from the government of North Korea. India has been extending humanitarian assistance to DPRK, which has suffered food shortage during the last few years as a result of natural calamities. The aid consisted of blankets, rice, wheat and baby food.
http://www.irna.com/en/world/.ewo.shtml
Editorial
N/A
Business/Technology
* Indian minister's warning over China
September 5 -- The minister in charge of India's privatisation has warned of the dangers of falling too far behind China. Arun Shourie said that if India was too slow with its economic reforms it could see China's economic strength translated into military strength. "If we do not grow now, their economic strength will translate into military strength. A great deal is at stake if reforms do not happen," Mr Shourie said. In the past 10 years India has attracted foreign direct investment of $23.7bn (Ј15.5bn), slightly more than China has attracted in just six months.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/2239474.stm
* Sri Lanka looks to foreign investors
September 5 -- Sri Lanka is considering tapping the international capital markets for about $300m to help rebuild its shattered economy. This would be the country's first foray into the markets since it agreed a ceasefire with separatist Tamil Tiger rebels last year. Two decades of internal strife had pretty much blocked the country's route to external financing. But with peace talks set to take place later this month in Thailand, the country appears to be back in favour with international lenders.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/2238437.stm
* Pakistan earns 12.5 mln dollars from gemstones export
September 5 -- Pakistan earned about 12.5 million US dollars from the export of gemstones during the last financial year, the Associated Press of Pakistan (APP) reported onThursday. The gemstones being exported to various countries include ruby,emerald, sapphire, topaz, aquamarine, tourmaline, quartz, garnet, diamond albite and Peridot, APP quoted well placed sources as saying. The country can earn a sizeable foreign exchange by exporting gemstones in the finished forms. Pakistan is bestowed with huge deposits of emerald and there isa 70-kilometer long belt of this precious stone in Sawat and Kohistan area.
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2002-09/05/content_551568.htm
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--- South Asian News, September 6, 2002 --- (International)
The Indian American Center for Political Awareness (IACPA) is a national non-profit organization committed to the political empowerment of the Indian American community. For additional information on IACPA, please visit www..
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