Pakistan dancing girls fear Taleban

On a chilly October night, a late visitor bangs the huge steel gate of a house in a narrow alley of Mingora city, the headquarters of Pakistan's troubled northern district, Swat.
But no-one answers.
A painted sign on top of the gate says: "No more singing and dancing from today - 8 August 2007."
A curious neighbour walks up to the visitor, telling him the girls inside "have got letters from the Taleban, advising them to put an end to their business if they don't want their house blown up".
Whisky and dance
People in the Bunrh neighbourhood, the so-called music street of Mingora, confirm this information.
"Dozens of families have shifted to other cities, while many others are stuck here without any means of a living," says Fazl-e-Maula, the father-in-law of a local dancing girl, Nasreen.
Local Taleban have been spreading their influence in Swat since 2005, and are currently holding large swathes of territory just north of Mingora.
This is too much - I don't feel like dancing any more Former dancing girl Nasreen
Last August, they distributed a dozen letters across the Bunrh neighbourhood threatening bomb attacks unless the dancers and musicians gave up their professions.
Swat has been long known for its fair-skinned dancing girls, popular with people who wish to have dancing at a wedding party or any other private party across most of northern Pakistan.
Unlike some dancing girls in the Shahi Mohallah area of Lahore, the women in this conservative city have never had a reputation for providing any sexual services.
Many people visit the girls in Swat at their houses in Bunrh for a glass of whisky and a dance.
Down the decades, many of the girls have shown themselves to be talented radio singers or movie stars.
But in recent years the tide has turned against them in a big way.
It started with the "Islamisation" policy of former military ruler, Gen Zia ul-Haq, in the 1980s, which saw the rise of the clergy's influence in social life. This made dance parties at weddings increasingly unpopular.
In 2002, a religious alliance, the MMA, came to power in North West Frontier Province (NWFP) and banned all cultural shows where these girls performed.
At the turn of the millennium, many girls were on their way out of business.
"I was too old to dance by then," recalls Shah Bano, 38. "My daughter had her admirers, but when the MMA came to power, invitations to wedding parties began to get few and far between. And there was the risk of arrest and public humiliation."
Two years ago her husband, Babu - "the best drummer in Mingora" - died. This gave her son, a staunch opponent of dancing in the family, a chance to force his sister out of business.
"I work for a local butcher," says Shaukat Ali, Shah Bano's son. "The wages are not great, but I'm glad my sister doesn't have to dance for a living."
Violent campaign
The girls who turned to music concerts and stage shows, often held in Peshawar, the capital of NWFP, were thrown out of business when the cultural shows were banned.
Some of them benefited temporarily when the aficionados and businessmen on NWFP's dance and music scene diversified into the video CD business, producing and distributing long plays and dance sessions on VCDs and DVDs.
But a violent campaign by militant Taleban has caused this business to decline across large parts of NWFP. Hundreds of video outlets have been blown up. Others have voluntarily closed down or switched to other businesses.
These repeated reverses have frustrated many girls and their families. Nasreen, 26, a mother of two, is one of them.
She says she was "hurt when some maulanas [clerics] sighted her and banned her stage show in Peshawar four years ago".
"It was a problem because the men of the house - my husband and father-in-law - knew no other trade except to play musical instruments."
Optimists and rebels
In 2006, she received almost half a dozen contracts to perform for music video CDs, often recorded on private premises.
It brought her enough money to buy a passenger van for her husband. However, due to his inexperience the income from the van has been far from satisfactory.
She says she tried to supplement the household income by receiving guests at home, until the Taleban in Swat issued their threats in August, leading to a complete ban on all singing and dancing in Mingora.
"This is too much. I don't feel like dancing any more," she says.
But Mingora's music street is not without its optimists and rebels.
"My heart tells me that things will change for the better, but I hope I'm alive by then," says Palwasha, an enthusiastic 18-year-old novice.
And for a novice she has done very well so far.
Unlike Nasreen, she has taken risks and done more than 20 CD plays and video dance sessions, despite an explicit ban by the Taleban.
She has also sung numbers or performed on songs for the official Pakistan Television (PTV) and a Pashto language private TV channel, AVT Khyber.
Three months ago, she did a small role for a teleplay produced by Pakistan's Geo Entertainment TV channel.
She aspires to go to Lahore and act in movies, but neither she nor her uncle and guardian, Mohammad Saleem, have any contacts there.
And it is dangerous to stay on in Mingora.
"I have defied the Taleban's ban, and sometimes I suspect that they know it. I only hope to get out of here before they blow me up," she says.
Some names have been changed to protect the identities of the persons

Chavez Loses Constitutional Vote

Chavez Loses Vote That Would Have Let Him Run for Re-Election Indefinitely

CARACAS, Venezuela
President Hugo Chavez suffered a stinging defeat in a vote on constitutional changes that would have let him run for re-election indefinitely, the chief of National Electoral Council said Monday.
Voters defeated the sweeping measures by a vote of 51 percent to 49 percent, Tibisay Lucena said.
CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) A vote on sweeping constitutional reforms that could let Hugo Chavez hold the presidency for life remained unresolved early Monday, with the government saying it was too close to call and the opposition pressing for results.
Tensions grew as hours passed after the official close of voting with no announcement of results. The referendum on constitutional changes was a critical test for a leader bent on turning this major U.S. oil provider into a socialist state.
An emboldened opposition and clashes during student-led protests in recent weeks prompted fears of bitter conflict if either side disputed the results.
Opposition leader Henrique Capriles said early Monday that "the time has come to announce the results to the country." Capriles earlier had noted that 97 percent of polling stations are automated.
Another opposition spokesman Leopoldo Lopez, mayor of the Caracas district of Chacao, claimed earlier that results seen by election monitors "indicate the 'no' vote is going to win."
Caravans of Chavez's supporters had taken to the streets after polls closed, honking horns and blaring celebratory music in anticipation of victory. But their enthusiasm appeared to fade as the hours wore on.
"The result of the referendum is close," Vice President Jorge Rodriguez said from Chavez's campaign headquarters. "We will respect the result, whatever it is even if it's by one single vote."
Chavez's opponents fear a win by the president could mean a plunge toward dictatorship. Supporters have faith that Chavez would use the reforms to deepen grass-roots democracy and more equitably spread Venezuela's oil wealth.
The changes would help transform the major U.S. oil provider into a socialist state. They would create new forms of communal property, let Chavez handpick local leaders under a redrawn political map, permit civil liberties to be suspended under extended states of emergency and allow Chavez to seek re-election indefinitely. Otherwise, he cannot run again in 2012.
Chavez warned opponents ahead of the vote he would not tolerate attempts to incite violence, and threatened to cut off oil exports to the U.S. if Washington interferes. Chavez calls those who resist his socialist agenda pawns of President Bush.
"He's going to be an elected dictator," 77-year-old voter Ruben Rozenberg said of Chavez. The retired blue jeans maker, who emigrated from Cuba in 1961, said that although Chavez's revolution is peaceful compared to that of Fidel Castro, "we've been violated all around" by the Venezuelan leader's progressive consolidation of power.
Across town, in a pro-Chavez slum, 40-year-old Jorge Blanco said Chavez "is giving power to the people" through the reforms.
"He opened that little door and now we're free." Of the wealthy elite, Blanco said: "What they fear is losing power."
The government touted pre-election polls showing Chavez with an advantage, while surveys cited by the opposition indicated strong resistance unfamiliar territory for a leader who easily won re-election last year with 63 percent of the vote.
Casting his ballot, Chavez called the electronic voting system "one of the most modern in the world, one of the most transparent in the world."
His opponents have questioned the National Electoral Council's impartiality, however, especially after Chavez named Rodriguez, its former chief, his vice president in January.
About 100 electoral observers from 39 countries in Latin America, Europe and the United States were on hand, the electoral council said. Absent were the Organization of American States and the European Union, which have monitored past votes.
All was reported calm during voting but 45 people were detained, most for committing ballot-related crimes like "destroying electoral materials," said Gen. Jesus Gonzalez, chief of a military command overseeing security.
At a polling station in one politically divided Caracas neighborhood, Chavez supporters shouted "Get out of here!" to opposition backers who stood nearby aiming to monitor the vote count. A few dozen Chavistas rode by on motorcycles with bandanas and hats covering their faces, some throwing firecrackers.
Opponents including Roman Catholic leaders, press freedom groups, human rights groups and prominent business leaders fear the reforms would grant Chavez unchecked power and threaten basic rights.
Cecilia Goldberger, a 56-year-old voting in affluent eastern Caracas, said Venezuelans were being hoodwinked and do not really understand how Chavez's power grab will affect them.
She resented pre-dawn, get-out-the-vote tactics by Chavistas, including fireworks and reveille blaring from speakers mounted on cruising trucks.
"I refuse to be treated like cattle and I refuse to be part of a communist regime," the Israeli-born Goldberger said, adding that she and her businessman husband hope to leave the country.
Chavez sought to capitalize on his personal popularity ahead of the vote.
He is seen by many as a champion of the poor who has redistributed more oil wealth than any other leader in memory. Chavez, 53, says he will stay in power only as long as Venezuelans keep re-electing him but has added that might be until 2050, when he would be 95 years old. The reforms would also grant Chavez control over the Central Bank and extend presidential terms from six to seven years.
Many Chavez supporters say he needs more time in office to consolidate his unique brand of "21st century socialism," and praise other proposed changes such as shortening the workday from eight hours to six, creating a social security fund for millions of informal laborers and promoting communal councils where residents decide how to spend government funds.
Tensions have surged in recent weeks as university students led protests and occasionally clashed with police and Chavista groups.
Some 140,000 soldiers and reservists were posted for the vote, the Defense Ministry said.
Electoral council chief Tibisay Lucena called the vote "the calmest we've had in the last 10 years."
Associated Press writers Frank Bajak, Edison Lopez, Fabiola Sanchez, Jorge Rueda, Christopher Toothaker and Sandra Sierra contributed to this report.

Musharraf Sets Date for End of Emergency Rule

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan, Nov. 29 — Hours after being sworn in to a second term, President Pervez Musharraf announced Thursday that he would lift his state of emergency on Dec. 16, leaving barely three weeks for election campaigning and setting the stage for further confrontation with his opposition.
Mr. Musharraf made his promise to lift the emergency a day after he ended eight years of military rule, moving him a step closer to meeting the most urgent demands both at home and abroad to return the country to democracy.
“I fully intend to lift the emergency on Dec. 16, to end the Provisional Constitutional Order and to hold fair and free elections according to the Constitution,” he said in an address to the nation on state television and radio Thursday evening.
“No destabilization or hurdle will be allowed in this democratic process,” he added. “Elections, God willing, will be held on Jan. 8 according to the Constitution and no one should create any hurdles.”
Yet even before his announcement, an umbrella movement of opposition parties, the All Pakistan Democratic Movement, led by former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, said they supported a boycott of the parliamentary elections in protest of the lack of democratic norms under the emergency.
Two leaders of the lawyers’ movement against Mr. Musharraf, who were released from detention Thursday, also called for a boycott. One, Munir Malik, a constitutional lawyer and former president of the Supreme Court Bar, left an Islamabad hospital in a wheelchair and said the lawyers would renew their struggle.
Lawyers protesting Mr. Musharraf’s swearing-in clashed with the police in the city of Lahore, and threw bricks, glasses and sticks at the police who blocked their demonstration. Several lawyers and police officers were injured.
Meanwhile, even as Mr. Musharraf announced a deadline for the end of the emergency, he showed no relaxation on the detention of the former judges and senior advocates of the Supreme Court, or of the continued suspension of radio and television stations.
Somber and dressed in a traditional black tunic favored by civilian leaders, Mr. Musharraf took his new oath in a ceremony layered with contradictions, lecturing diplomats afterward on what he termed their obsession with democracy.
The Constitution that Mr. Musharraf vowed “to preserve, protect and defend” was suspended three weeks ago when he imposed the emergency, which only he holds the power to rescind.
The presidential oath was administered by the Supreme Court chief justice, Abdul Hameed Dogar, whom Mr. Musharraf appointed after dismissing the previous Supreme Court, which seemed about to rule another term for him illegal.
The former chief justice, Mohammed Iftikhar Chaudhry, and a number of other dismissed Supreme Court justices remain under house arrest, meanwhile, as do four senior advocates who work at the court since the emergency was imposed.
Once the emergency is lifted, decrees Mr. Musharraf made in recent weeks are to remain in force. These include tougher curbs on the news media, antiterrorism charges against lawyers and even an amendment allowing civilians to be tried by military tribunals for offenses like sedition. Two popular FM radio stations remain off the air, as does the private television station, Geo, all of which were known for their strong news content.
Still, at the official ceremony, Mr. Musharraf warned assembled foreign diplomats not to force democracy and human rights on developing countries, but to let them evolve in their own time. Many of the diplomats had been highly critical of his recent actions.
“There is an unrealistic or even impractical obsession with your form of democracy, human rights and civil liberties, which you have taken centuries to acquire and which you expect us to adopt in a few years, in a few months,” Mr. Musharraf said, addressing the diplomats.
“We want democracy; I am for democracy,” he said. “We want human rights, we want civil liberties, but we will do it our way, as we understand our society, our environment, better than anyone in the West.”
Mr. Musharraf defended his record in power, saying that he had always intended to lead the country toward democracy and to remove his uniform, but had to act in the interest of Pakistan’s stability.
He said he had to impose emergency rule on Nov. 3, and delay removing his uniform, because of a clash between state institutions, namely the judiciary and the government, and the growing threat of terrorism.
He blamed Mr. Chaudhry, the former chief justice, for derailing his planned transition to democracy and suggested it was a conspiracy hatched against him.
“I feel this derailment could have led the nation to chaos,” Mr. Musharraf said. He said he had not wanted to impose the emergency rule but in light of a growing threat from terrorism and the clashes between the judiciary and the executive, he had acted in the country’s interests.
“This was an extraordinary circumstance, ladies and gentlemen, it needed extraordinary measures to control,” he said. “No half-hearted measures could have delivered.”
Mr. Musharraf said he supported the return of the two former prime ministers, Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif, whom he had deposed in a coup in 1999. He said he had prepared a level field for elections and invited the opposition to take part.
Yet he also indicated that he intended to remain in charge even without his military uniform.
“Unfortunately, this period has been more turbulent,” Mr. Musharraf said in his speech to diplomats and Pakistani dignitaries. “It carries on being turbulent, but I think we are coming out of the storm.”

Global warming could make it to Senate floor

Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., talks about the environment to Sun Microsystems workers at Sun headquarters in Santa Clara in August. Boxer visited Sun to survey examples of eco-friendly processors and programs that help businesses reduce their energy consumption. The visit was an advance of a field hearing she is chairing with the Environment and Public Works Committee on the issue of green jobs.

Parliament cannot declare republic, Sujata

A central leader of Nepali Congress (NC) Sujata Koirala has said that the 1990 Constitution should be revived to resolve the current problems faced by the country.

She said that reviving the 1990 statute without the King's power and authority and including provisions to accommodate Maoists is the need of the hour.

After the success of 2006 movement, the 1990 constitution had been scrapped and replaced by interim constitution of 2007.

Sujata also accused the Home Minister Krishna Sitaula of 'ambushing' the party and the country.

"In the hope that the Maoists will improve, the NC gave up all its stands. And now Sitaulaji has ambushed not only the party but also the country," said Sujata, who is also the daughter of Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala. She made the allegations pointing at the role played by Sitaula – who is also an NC leader - in reaching understanding with the Maoists on many occasions.

Speaking at an interaction at the Reporters Club, Saturday, she said that the parliament cannot declare republic.

Body of Nepalese activist found

The body of an abducted political worker, Bechan Yadav, has been found in southern Nepal.
Mr Yadavan, an officer from the Nepali Congress party, is the latest victim of escalating violence threatening a peace accord signed nearly a year ago.
Police said they believe another corpse found recently may be that of a journalist, Birendra Shah, abducted exactly a month ago.
Many of the kidnappings have been blamed on former Maoist rebels.
The Maoists' youth league in particular has been accused of violent practices and of acting in contravention of last year's peace agreement.
While law and order has deteriorated, politicians in Kathmandu have continued to argue about the country's future political structures.
Elections planned for this month were postponed indefinitely after the Maoists abandoned their cabinet posts and vowed to disrupt the polls.
They insist they will not go back to war.

Activist group says Tibetans fired upon by Chinese while crossing into Nepal

BEIJING - Tibetans trying to cross a mountain pass to exile in Nepal were fired upon by Chinese border police, an activist group said Wednesday.

A group of more than 30 Tibetans, including Buddhist monks nuns and two children, were trying to cross into Nepal using the icy Himalayan Nangpa Pass on Oct. 18 when they were fired upon by China's People's Armed Police, the Washington-based International Campaign for Tibet said, quoting several members of the group who reached Katmandu in Nepal.

It said there were no reported injuries or fatalities, but that several members of the group including three monks were taken into custody.

The report follows a similar case in September last year when a group of international climbers witnessed a Buddhist nun being shot dead from the same location. The incident was captured on video by a Romanian cameraman climber, leading to international condemnation. The activist group said incidents also took place in 2002 and 2005.

A man who refused to provide his name at the Tibetan government's media office said: "I have no idea of this. It should not have happened in Tibet."

Telephone calls to the police in the Tibet capital of Lhasa rang unanswered Wednesday.

According to the Campaign for Tibet, the Tibetans were chased by an armed group telling them to stop. About seven police officials fired at them. Whether the shots came before or after the shouting at the Tibetans is unclear from the report.

About 2,000 Tibetans arrive in Nepal each year according to the Office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees. Many attempt to reach Dharamsala, India, the base of the Tibetan government in exile led by the Dalai Lama.

The Dalai Lama, Tibet's traditional leader, fled in 1959 amid an abortive uprising against Chinese forces, who had moved into the region after the Communist takeover of the country.

Tibetans crossing into Nepal often are ordinary people from East Tibet, who want to send their children to Tibetan schools, or monks who want to study and don't feel that is fully possible in Tibet, said Robbie Barnett, who teaches modern Tibetan studies at Columbia University.

East Tibet has been the site of increased economic and social changes as part of China's development of the region which may be "culturally very unsettling for them," he said.

Nepal House resumes debate on Maoists` demand

Kathmandu, Oct 29: Nepal's Parliament on Monday resumed a crucial debate on the Maoists' resolution for a new political and electoral system that has stalled the landmark peace process.

The special session of the interim House resumed amid Maoists' supporters staging a sit-in near the Parliament demanding the immediate declaration of Nepal as a Republic and adopting a fully proportional electoral system for the Constituent Assembly polls.

The session was called earlier this month, but postponed for festival celebrations after the two sides failed to resolve the deadlock.

Hundreds of women activists affiliated to the CPN-Maoist and other Leftist organisations under the banner of the Women's Forum for Democratic Republic organized a rally and sit-in near Singhdurbar secretariat.

At least 100 student activists of the ruling alliance were arrested from the Parliament Gate today as they staged sit-in demanding early elections.

"We wanted to caution the leaders that they have to keep their unity intact and find a way out of the political deadlock," said Gagan Thapa, leader of Nepal Students Union affiliated to the Nepali Congress.

The Speaker Subhash Nemwang held separate meetings with Maoist chairman Prachanda and CPN-UML general secretary Madhav Kumar Nepal before the session started, according to sources.

Nepali Congress has already decided to vote against the Maoists' motion.

"The Parliament session has started, and if we fail to reach any consensus, voting will be conducted to decide on the fate of our proposals in a day or two," Maoist leader Dev Gurung was quoted as saying in the media.

Women In Americas

Buenos Aires (eCanadaNow) - Cristina Fernandez, wife of outgoing President Nestor Kirchner, appeared to be winning Sunday's presidential election in Argentina, exit polls cited on television said.

According to the surveys, the centre-left Fernandez, 54, would obtain 42-46 per cent of the vote and would not need a runoff to be declared president-elect.

Preliminary official results were expected later Sunday.

The closest of her 13 rivals, Christian Liberal Elisa Carrio, would only get 23-25 per cent of the ballots, exit polls showed. Some 27 million Argentine citizens were entitled to vote.

To avoid a run-off, the winning candidate must reach one of two results: at least 45 per cent of the vote, or 40 per cent with a lead of more than 10 percentage points above the second-place finisher.

Preliminary official results were expected later Sunday.

Polls opened at 1100 GMT and were originally scheduled to close 2100 GMT. Electoral authorities extended voting in Buenos Aires by one hour after some polling stations were delayed in opening, and because of many long queues.

No serious incidents were reported.

In theory, no exit polls are allowed to be made public before the first official results are known, although Argentine media have a history of violating this embargo.

"Today is a very special day. When I was 18 I could not vote," Fernandez said when she cast her ballot in the southern city of Rio Gallegos.

"Nobody could decide on anything," Fernandez recalled, with reference to the dictatorship of 1966-73.

Outgoing President Kirchner (2003-2007) also stressed the importance of "institutional normality" as he cast his ballot.

Carrio voted in Buenos Aires and claimed she was "very happy and very calm" awaiting the result of her campaign.

The new president is set to be inaugurated on December 10.

Allergan to launch Botox in SAARC in November

The US based pharmaceutical and medical device company, Allergan Inc, is expanding its business activity in the Asia Pacific. The company is planning to launch its one billion dollar pharma drug 'Botox' in Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Nepal and Bangladesh in November 2007.

Botox is the flagship product of Allegan Inc and has been approved for 20 unique indications in more than 50 countries. Over the past decade, the uses of Botox have expanded as scientists and physicians continue to recognize its broad applicability. It is used for the treatment of certain ophthalmic movement disorders. Botox therapy is now widely accepted in many regions around the world as the gold standard for indications ranging from therapeutic neuromuscular disorder and related pain to cosmetic facial aesthetics.

Speaking to Pharmabiz, Patrick T Welch , vice president, managing director Asia Allergan medical aesthetics and neuroscience said, "We are committed to delivering innovations in the field of medical science. Botox is looked upon to provide benefits to patients in 20 approved indication across the world. We are planning to launch Botox in Pakistan by the end of next month. We are making huge investment in the terms of awareness programme. In the near future we may start educational institution in India for the physician or to the consumer. The aim is to give them proper knowledge and benefits from the Botox. Recently we have commissioned our clinical office at Bangalore and planning to commission more clinical office across the Asia in the near future".

Botox has been in existence in India for more than a decade. It is widely used by diverse speciality physicians as well as for cosmetic purposes. It is a US $one billion pharma drug in the world. Numerous estimates suggest that Botox is set to continue with its growth rate over the years.

A Kurdish Lesson

A debate among U.S. military brass over whether to declare victory over al Qaeda in Iraq coincides with threats by Turkey to strike terrorist camps in northern Iraq belonging to the Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK. Note the irony: The PKK, which in recent days has killed scores of Turkish soldiers, was itself declared dead as a terrorist group in 1999.

There are excellent reasons to avoid pronouncements concerning AQI's defeat. One is to deny the group the chance to offer testaments in blood to its own resilience. A second is to avoid another political embarrassment of the "Mission Accomplished" kind. But the main reason is that the experience of terrorist organizations world-wide shows that even in defeat they are rarely truly finished. Like Douglas MacArthur's old soldiers, terrorist groups never die. At best they just fade away.

Some examples: In its heyday in the 1980s, Peru's Maoist Shining Path was every bit as brutal as al Qaeda. The 1992 capture of its charismatic leader, former philosophy professor Abimael Guzmán, was supposed to have dealt a fatal blow to the group's capacity to operate, as was the capture seven years later of his successor, Óscar Ramírez. Yet as recently as last year, the Peruvian government was forced to declare a state of emergency in the Huánuco region to deal with terrorist activities by the group.

Or take the Taliban. In April 2005, American Gen. David Barno told reporters he believed that, with the exception of a few bitter-enders, the Taliban would be a memory within two years. The opposite happened. In 2006, the rate of terrorist attacks in Afghanistan soared, and the Bush administration was forced to deploy 6,000 additional troops to recover territory lost to the Taliban and turn back their anticipated spring offensive.
[Abdullah Ocalan]

What about the PKK? Late in 1998 Turkey massed troops on its border with Syria, with the declared intention of expelling the PKK and its leader Abdullah Öcalan from Damascus if the Syrians didn't do so themselves. (A banner headline in the Turkish paper Hurriyet declared "We're going to say 'shalom' to the Israelis on the Golan Heights.") The late Syrian strongman Hafez Assad got the message, and sent Öcalan packing. He was eventually captured by Turkish intelligence in Nairobi, and sentenced to death by a Turkish court (commuted to a life sentence when Turkey abolished the death penalty in 2002). Öcalan has since apologized to the Turkish people for the 37,000 deaths he caused in the 1980s and '90s and called for a peaceful solution to the Kurdish issue. The PKK itself declared a ceasefire.

That should have been the end of it. As Turkish analyst Soner Cagaptay of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy observes, Öcalan was a cult-of-personality figure in an organization that, unlike the cellular structure of al Qaeda, was run along strictly hierarchical lines.

For the next few years the Turkish government made real, if limited, strides in accommodating peaceful ethnic Kurdish cultural demands in education and broadcasting. What remained of the PKK -- 5,000 or so fighters -- mainly retreated to northern Iraq, where their bases were attacked by Turkish forces no fewer than 24 times.

So might things have remained had the U.S. invasion of Iraq not rearranged the strategic chessboard. The Turks did not help themselves by failing to support the war, which caused strains with Washington and prevented them from carrying out further cross-border raids. That, in turn, created an opening for Iran, which until then had been the PKK's sole remaining state sponsor. Concerned about its isolation in the region, and sensing an opportunity to make common cause with the moderately Islamist government of Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Tehran abruptly switched sides, going so far as to shell PKK positions in northern Iraq. Not surprisingly, the Turks began to take a more favorable view of Iran.

The U.S. role is scarcely more creditable. The Ankara government has been pressing the Bush administration to hit PKK bases for at least four years. The administration has responded with a combination of empty promises of future action and excuses that U.S. forces are already overstretched in Iraq. For the Turks, who contribute more than 1,000 troops to NATO's mission in Afghanistan, U.S. nonfeasance is a mystery, if not an outright conspiracy. "How is it that Turkey fights America's terrorists, but America does not fight Turkey's terrorists?" is how Mr. Cagaptay sums up the prevailing mood.

Yet the real mystery isn't U.S. behavior, which was mainly dictated by a desire not to rock the boat in what was (at least until this month), the only relatively stable region of Iraq. It is the forbearance shown to the PKK by Massoud Barzani, Kurdistan's president, who has otherwise sought to cultivate better relations with Ankara and Kurdish moderates in Turkey, and who would have much to lose if an invading Turkish army turned his province into a free-fire zone. One theory is that Mr. Barzani wants to use the PKK as a diplomatic card, to be exchanged for Turkish concessions in some future negotiation. But all that depends on his ability to rein in the PKK at the last minute and avert a Turkish invasion. Yesterday's kidnapping (or killing) of another eight Turkish troops puts that in doubt.

Meanwhile, the PKK has fully reconstituted itself as an effective fighting force under the leadership of Murat Karayilan, who was canny enough to see Congress's Armenian genocide resolution as an opportunity to take scissors to the already frayed U.S.-Turkish relationship. The resolution was turned back at the 11th hour, but it remains to be seen whether it has already done its damage.

All the more reason, then, for the U.S. to pre-empt the Turks by taking the decisive action against the PKK it has promised for too long. But the story of the PKK's resurgence should also remind us of the dangers of premature declarations of victory against terrorist groups, especially when such declarations foster the illusion that you can finally come home. Against this kind of enemy, there are no final victories, and no true homecomings, and no real alternatives other than to keep on fighting.

Afghan president says region must tackle terrorism

By Sayed SalahuddinSat Oct 20, 9:01 AM ET

Afghanistan and its neighbors must launch a regional campaign against terrorism in order to make the most of their natural resources and develop trade, President Hamid Karzai said on Saturday.

Karzai was addressing the final session of a conference of the Economic Cooperation Organization (ECO), a 10-nation group which was founded by Iran, Turkey and Pakistan.

Afghanistan, where a Taliban-led insurgency -- backed by al Qaeda -- has intensified in the past two years, could serve as a bridge bringing ECO nations together, Karzai said.

"Our homelands are resourceful homelands. We have abundant resources and our people are thirsty for progress," Karzai said, adding economic development would help bring stability.

"...Terrorism, drugs...and organized crime...form our difficulties and are the main block to regional development."

He emphasized terrorism was the most serious obstacle.

"And this (development) will not be possible if we do not isolate the handful of terrorists wherever they are and organize ... a joint campaign against them."

Located on the old Silk Route, Afghanistan has rich copper and iron reserves and some precious stones.

Iran, one of the world's leading oil exporters, Turkey and Pakistan set up the ECO in 1985. Afghanistan, Azerbaijan and the five central Asian nations have since joined.

Turkmenistan has long wanted to export its gas to Pakistan and beyond through Afghanistan, but the multi-billion dollar project has been held up due to insecurity in the country.

Along with Iran, Turkmenistan would help Afghanistan build a rail network that would enable Iran and Turkey to link up with central Asia, an Afghan official said.

During the four-day conference, ECO representatives discussed investment, transit and transport facilitation, energy, trade, exploration as well as export of gas and oil.

Afghanistan is largely a consumer market for the products of its neighbors. Its annual trade with them has grown to some $4 billion since the Taliban's ouster in 2001, according to Afghan government estimates.

The country has not seen any major foreign and local investment since 2001, largely due to poor infrastructure, corruption and the growing insurgency.

The conference, the first such major gathering hosted by Afghanistan for decades, was held in the western city of Herat, which is regarded as one of the safer areas of the country.

Bush and Congress Honor Dalai Lama

By BRIAN KNOWLTON

WASHINGTON, Oct. 17 — Over furious objections from China and in the presence of President Bush, Congress on Wednesday bestowed its highest civilian honor on the Dalai Lama, the exiled spiritual leader of Tibetan Buddhists whom Beijing considers a troublesome voice of separatism.

Dressed in flowing robes of dark burgundy and bright orange, Tenzin Gyatso, the 14th Dalai Lama, beamed and bowed as the president and members of Congress greeted him with a standing ovation and then praised him as a hero of the Tibetan struggle. President Bush called him “a man of faith and sincerity and peace.”

But the Dalai Lama said he felt “a sense of regret” over the sharp tensions with China unleashed by his private meeting on Tuesday with Mr. Bush and by the Congressional Gold Medal conferred on him in the ornate Capitol Rotunda.

In gentle language and conciliatory tones, he congratulated China on its dynamic economic growth and recognized its rising role on the world stage, but also gently urged it to embrace “transparency, the rule of law and freedom of information.”

The 72-year-old spiritual leader made clear that “I’m not seeking independence” from China, something that is anathema to Beijing. Nor, he said, would he use any future agreement with China “as a steppingstone for Tibet’s independence.”

What he wanted, he said, was “meaningful autonomy for Tibet.”

The Dalai Lama has lived in exile in India since the Chinese Army crushed an uprising in his homeland in 1959.

Speeches by the president and the top leaders of each party emphasized the Dalai Lama’s humble beginnings and humanitarian achievements, as well as a long history of American support for him. He was also lauded by the Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel, a fellow Nobel Peace Prize laureate and a previous winner of the Congressional Gold Medal, which is cast in the image of the recipient.

When the speaker of the House, Representative Nancy Pelosi, noted that President Franklin D. Roosevelt had given the Dalai Lama, then very young, a watch that displayed the phases of the moon — and that he still had it — the honored guest tugged on his robe, held his wrist out before President Bush, tapped on the watch and grinned.

Earlier, Beijing offered a sharp new rebuke of the award ceremony, which the top Chinese religious affairs official condemned as a “farce.”

“The protagonist of this farce is the Dalai Lama,” said Ye Xiaowen, director general of the State Administration for Religious Affairs, Reuters reported. Other officials have warned, without specifying, of a “serious impact” on relations between the United States and China.

Mr. Bush, during a news conference, appeared unconcerned.

“I don’t think it ever damages relations,” he said, “when an American president talks about, you know — religious tolerance and religious freedom is good for a nation.”

The two have met three times before. But in the face of the Chinese broadsides, their encounter on Tuesday was held with the maximum discretion: in the White House residence, not the Oval Office, with no cameras present, and shorn of the trappings of a meeting of the president and a political leader.

Mr. Bush reminded reporters that he had told President Hu Jintao of China, when they met recently in Sydney, Australia, that he would meet the Dalai Lama. During the award ceremony, he urged the Chinese to do the same.

“They will find this good man to be a man of peace and reconciliation,” he said.

Apparently in a protest over the award, China pulled out of a multiparty meeting this month to discuss Iran. It also canceled a human rights meeting with Germany, displeased by Chancellor Angela Merkel’s meeting last month with the Dalai Lama.

Latest terror is bio-terror

The centralisation of food production is a major reason for many of the outbreaks of food-borne illness across the nation, a senior official from the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Thursday. Richard Besser, the director of the CDC's Coordinating Office for Terrorism Preparedness and Emergency Response, said the agency has done a good job of determining where the outbreaks have originated, but that it has been "not so good about implementing corrective action to make sure it doesn't happen again."

Besser spoke at the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center as part of an ongoing lecture series about public health.

"The centralisation of food production makes outbreaks something we have to be ready for," said Besser, who began his professional career studying food-borne illnesses.

During his presentation, he discussed how the CDC helped pinpoint the source of a deadly E coli outbreak last year. The outbreak, traced to bagged baby spinach grown in California, was blamed for the deaths of three people and for sickening hundreds more across the country.

Although bio-terrorism was not the cause of that outbreak, Besser said its spectre has become a concern in recent years while studying cases of food-borne illnesses.

He noted that in recent weeks, the CDC has aided with investigations of botulism and anthrax in different parts of the country. A standard question in such investigations now is whether such illnesses are naturally occurring or the result of a deliberate action.

While less than a decade ago the concept of terrorism felt distant and like something that would never happen in America, 9/11 changed everything. Still, when most of us think of terrorist attacks we think big: car bombs, airplane hijackings, and atomic blasts quickly come to mind. Some of the deadliest weapons for terrorists, however, might be so tiny that the human eye cannot even see them.

Unlike traditional warfare, bio-terrorism, a terrorist attack that deploys viruses, bacteria, or other germs as weapons for the intent of massive human destruction, can be quietly insidious. With preparation, the worst biological agents could spread through air, water, and food supplies. Days might pass while germs spread rampantly without anyone knowing.

Just six years ago attackers delivered anthrax as a powder in letters sent through the US mail. Unfortunately, this was not the first time that humans manipulated microbials and viruses with harmful intent. In the past, smallpox (a virus) and plague (a bacterium) have also been agents for biological warfare.

The nature of these miniature biological powerhouses has led the US Government to believe there is an increased need for preparedness and surveillance. Preparations are well under way to counter a biological attack. Much is on the horizon to hasten the development of counteragents using new technologies such as the breeding of transgenic rabbits to make human polyclonal antibodies and finding new uses for old antibiotics.

The DoD hopes to decrease the spread of viruses and deadly bacteria by leveraging accelerated manufacturing techniques that rapidly produce huge quantities of vaccines and antibodies. The goal is to create an accelerated manufacturing platform that can produce as many as three million doses in 12 weeks. The ability to respond rapidly and with such large quantities represents an enormous technological advance for society.

Five years ago, the US Congress and the Bush administration ordered food inspectors at American ports to begin stamping the words "United States Refused Entry" on incoming shipments that failed to meet basic safety regulations.

The goal was simple: Prevent importers from trying to sneak the rejected shipments through another US port, where the inspection process might be less thorough because of smaller staffs, a heavier flow of shipments or plain old lack of vigilance.

But the Food and Drug Administration, the agency that oversees the majority of the nation's food supply, still hasn't implemented the crackdown on "port shopping" by substandard importers. Among other things, regulators have been unable to agree on how big the stamp should be and where it be should placed, according to USA Today.

And, as bizarre as it sounds, some importers have complicated matters further by pushing for an invisible stamp - readable only to US inspectors - that would give companies a better chance of peddling their rejected products to countries where regulations are less demanding.

Universal Detection Technology, a developer and provider of early-warning monitoring technologies to protect people from bio-terrorism and radiological weapons, announced that it has received more orders for its bio-terrorism detection kits stemming from its presentation during the Gulf Security conference in Sarasota, hosted by the Sarasota Sheriff's office. Orders are in addition to the ones announced previously.

UDTT marketed its counter terrorism solutions including the Company's bio-terrorism detection kits, real time anthrax detector, and radiological detection systems during the conference to members of law enforcement. The kits were billed to the security agencies and the US Army through SSI as part of the participation fee for the counter-terrorism training at the Gulf Coast Terrorism Prevention Conference.

"We are pleased to receive additional purchase orders even after the conference and we hope to increase our market share through our marketing efforts," said Mr Jacques Tizabi, UDTT's Chief Executive Officer.

Cows from Victoria, Australia, are being used to conduct world-first research into protecting humans in the event of a bio-terrorism attack using anthrax, plague or ricin.

That country's Department of Defence bio-terrorism unit and Melbourne firm Anadis are using the cows, kept at Tatura in north-central Victoria, to develop a spray-on gel that could identify agents used in a bio-terror attack and contain the infection.

Anadis recently secured a $ 500,000 federal grant to continue their research and the firm's Dr Grant Rawlin is currently in New York speaking with US military authorities about the project.

A forerunner to the research program has already been successful in using early-stage milk from Victorian cows, known as colostrum, to produce an injection to protect against E coli infections in humans. Experiments for the bio-terrorism and influenza applications are now being conducted using the Tatura herd.

While researchers are not using live strains of ricin, plague and anthrax in the cows, the Defence Science and Technology Organisation is working with Anadis to develop potential identification and containment gels in laboratory research.

Obama Returns to 2002

By Jim Rutenberg

WASHINGTON, Oct. 11 — Last week, Senator Barack Obama’s chief strategist lamented that he had only 14 seconds of video from what his presidential campaign believes to be a moment of political gold: Mr. Obama’s 2002 speech against the Iraq war just nine days before Congress, with support from several of his primary campaign opponents, authorized the invasion.

On Thursday, it seemed that the strategist, David Axelrod, had found a solution when the Obama campaign released an Internet advertisement that featured crystal-clear audio of the speech. In the advertisement, Mr. Obama’s voice played as the screen flashed photographs of Mr. Obama and fire-and-brimstone images of war.

But, campaign officials said late Thursday, the audio excerpt was not from the actual speech, but was a recently recorded version of it.

In Mr. Obama’s new spot, the screen flashes “Federal Plaza, Chicago, October 2, 2002,” before Mr. Obama is heard reciting 20 seconds of the speech in which he declared his opposition to the war.

In early October, when Mr. Obama’s campaign had an event commemorating the speech, Mr. Axelrod was quoted in The Chicago Tribune as lamenting that he had only 14 seconds of video from the original address. The video, from a local television station, is grainy with less than pristine sound, and Mr. Axelrod said he was pining for his own, full copy.

“I would kill for that,” he was quoted as saying. “No one realized at the time that it would be a historic thing.”

Bill Burton, a campaign spokesman, said Mr. Obama had reread the speech for use in the advertisement recently and addressed it with a joke.

“The last time Barack recorded an audio version of his written words he won a Grammy,” Mr. Burton said, “so he thought he’d give it another shot.” Mr. Obama won a Grammy Award in 2006 for the audiobook version of “Dreams From My Father,” the memoir he wrote in 1995.
Mr. Obama’s strategists are not the first to employ technology in the service of a campaign spot.

In 2003, the Republican National Committee admitted it had digitally enhanced audio of President Bush in a campaign commercial by editing out some verbal stumbling in his State of the Union address that year.

Russian Police Detain Five Foreign Rights Activists

Police in the Russian city of Nizhny-Novgorod have detained five international human rights activists who were due to attend a conference marking the first anniversary of the killing of Russian journalist Anna Politkovskaya.

Authorities detained the activists from Britain, Spain and Germany Saturday - one day before the conference commemorating Politkovskaya's murder.

Russia's Interfax news agency quotes a police official as saying the foreign nationals were detained on suspicion that they did not have the required temporary residence registration.

Politkovskaya was a fierce critic of President Vladimir Putin and wrote about human rights abuses in Chechnya. She was gunned down outside her Moscow apartment on October seventh of last year.

More than 60 celebrities and dignitaries signed a letter that appeared in today's "The Times" of London calling on Russia to bring the killers of the investigative reporter to justice, and to protect journalists.

The letter comes ahead of a rally planned in Moscow by opposition groups led by former Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov on the anniversary of Politkovskaya's death.

The main conference in memory of Politkovskaya had been planned for Friday and today in Nizhny-Novgorod. It was cancelled because the bank handling the organizers' finances blocked payments for the meeting site, and several hotels canceled their reservations. But human rights campaigners and opposition groups decided to meet anyway to mark the anniversary.

Russian authorities have so far detained 10 people in connection with Politkovskaya's murder. Two were later released.

Russia's top prosecutor has alleged that a Chechen émigré masterminded the shooting.

Nepal to Delay Elections

By REUTERS
KATHMANDU, Oct 5 (Reuters) — Nepal's constituent assembly elections will be delayed, after the the ruling coalition failed to break a political deadlock with Maoist former rebels, a leading government minister said.
The delay, if confirmed by the election commission, would be a major blow to a November peace deal that ended the Maoists' decade-long civil war against the monarchy - a revolt that caused more than 13,000 deaths.
"Seven political parties have recommended to the prime minister to delay the elections for now," Peace and Reconstruction Minister Ram Chandra Poudel told Reuters.
"The prime minister will formally request the election commission to postpone the vote."
The election was a key demand of the Maoists during their civil war, who wanted the assembly to abolish the monarchy and give them what they had been fighting for since 1996 - a republic.
But the Maoists walked out of the government last month, after the other political parties opposed fresh demands to abolish the monarchy ahead of the elections and introduce full proportional representation.
Analysts say the Maoists decision to leave the government and introduce new demands highlighted the growing pains of rebels who spent years in the jungles of Nepal but now face the possibility of losing an election as they enter the mainstream.
Maoist spokesman Krishna Bahadur Mahara had earlier said they did not want the election delayed.
"We want the election on schedule," Mahara said before the minister's announcement.
Media reports said the United Nations, which will also monitor the polls, had urged the Maoists to soften their stand on the elections.
Many Nepalis were sick of the unsettled politics.
"I am fed up. Political parties must soften their stands and resolve their difference immediately," 37-year-old Bina Pokharel, a Kathmandu housewife, said earlier on Friday.

UN envoy seeks Burma junta talks

The United Nations special envoy, Ibrahim Gambari, is in Burma's new capital to seek fresh meetings with the country's ruling military junta.

Mr Gambari met detained opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi in Rangoon on Sunday, but has yet to meet the country's senior generals.

Heavily-armed troops and police remain on the streets of Rangoon to prevent new pro-democracy protests.

Mr Gambari is hoping to end a crackdown on anti-government protesters.

On Sunday, he met some of the country's military leaders in the new capital Naypyidaw, and has now returned there for further talks.

But he did not meet senior general Than Shwe, or his deputy Maung Aye.

Monks detained

Mr Gambari is believed to be the first foreigner to meet Ms Suu Kyi for 10 months.

Her National League for Democracy won a landslide victory in elections in 1990, but the results were annulled by the junta.

A UN statement said they spent over an hour in talks, at a government guest house near the villa where she is kept under house arrest.

Mr Gambari earlier met Burma's acting prime minister, deputy foreign minister and ministers of information and culture.

Burma has seen almost two weeks of sustained popular unrest.

But the number of protesters on the streets is now much smaller than at the height of the rallies, and the Buddhist monks who led the initial protests are now being prevented from leaving their monasteries.

However, a correspondent in Rangoon - who must remain anonymous for her own safety - said people were too scared to do anything with so many military around.

She says people told her they felt afraid and helpless, having seen that the military is prepared to shoot monks, women and children.

But, she added, people assured her that the demonstrations would continue.

UK Ambassador Mark Canning told the BBC there were around 15,000 troops in Rangoon, and there had been no reports of further protests there on Sunday.

"They've managed to stamp a picture of normality, but only with a heavy military presence," he said.

Rare criticism

The government says 10 people were killed last week in the suppression of the opposition protests.

Diplomats and activists say the number killed was many times higher.

The country's leadership usually ignores outside pressure.

But the crackdown has prompted rare criticism from China and the Association of South East Asian Nations (Asean), of which Burma is a member.

A Japanese envoy is also due to arrive in the country, to ensure a full investigation into the death of Japanese video journalist Kenji Nagai.

Footage of his death last Wednesday appears to show a soldier shooting him at close range as security forces cleared central Rangoon of protesters.

Swami Ramdev In Kathmandu

Ramdev, the very famous Yoga guru is arriving to Kathmandu today. He will be teaching yoga to thousands of people at Tudhikhel from Saturday.

Thousands of his followers and admirers spread across the country have started to come to the capital city to attend his Yoga camp.

According to the organizers, more than 12,500 tickets have already been sold for the Yoga camp that would go on till Thursday. The number of people coming with government or local authority’s recommendation letter for free passes to the camp is equally remarkable. The organizers said that two thousand free passes have been distributed to poor, the sick and disabled.

About 700 policemen would provide security during the 6-day Yoga camp.
Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala is scheduled to inaugurate the Yoga camp at Tudhikhel on Saturday.

Unstable Nepal

Violence in Kapilvastu and neighboring Rupandehi districts of Nepal saw no sign of receding, with three more killed on Monday.

An unidentified group or groups murdered Dhan Bahadur Thapa of Khururiya VDC, Hiramani Kharel of Ganeshpur and an unidentified person even as the curfew order remained intact.

The situation grew tense after an unidentified group shot dead Mohid Khan, former chairman of an anti-Maoist group in Kapilvastu who was also district vice-chairman of the Loktantrik Madheshi Mukti Morcha, on Sunday morning.

Quite a few mobs, some armed, have been attacking ordinary people and vandalizing and torching houses and shops at Chandrauta, Birpur, Krishnanagar, district headquarters Taulihawa, Ganeshnagar, Lalpur, Bishanpur and many other places.

The locals, whose houses and property were damaged by berserk groups, resorted to retaliation, even as the local administration continued the curfew Monday. They vandalized many houses, the Lumbini Cotton Industry and petrol pumps at Chandrauta.

Traffic Police Office at Chandrauta said that 85 vehicles were torched in the arson, including a considerable number of private vehicles.

Although separate reinforcements of the Nepal Police and Armed Police Force have been deployed in the affected areas and the curfew is still in place, the situation is yet to be brought under control.

Locals at Motipur, Shivapur and Gorusinghe said that irate people set ablaze many houses in those localities Monday. Pahade people and their houses have been deliberately targeted, they said.

Vehicles that ply along the East-West Highway have been stranded at Gorusinghe. Candidates for Bachelor level examinations could not sit for the annual test due to the curfew. Similarly, Krishnanagar transit point has also been closed.

Curfew renewed in Butwal

Although the local administration in Butwal, Rupandehi district lifted the night-long curfew Monday morning, it renewed the prohibitory order from evening. Krishna Prasad Nepal, chief of the Area Administration Office in Butwal, informed that the curfew was re-imposed to avert any backlash against the fresh bout of violence in neighboring Kapilvastu district. A goodwill rally was taken out in Butwal Monday urging people to exercise restraint and to maintain communal harmony.

Can CA election in November be conducted in peaceful and constructive manner? Can the Will of Nepali people be recognized?

Prachanda rejects PM's proposal

A crucial meeting of Nepal's ruling multi-party alliance ended without an agreement after Maoist chief Prachanda rejected Prime Minister G P Koirala's proposal of a joint commitment to the November Constituent Assembly polls, saying the former rebels needed more time to make a decision on the issue.

The eight-party meet was convened at the Prime Minister's residence at Baluwatar on Saturday evening after a hiatus of more than two months.

However, it remained inconclusive after Maoist Chairman Prachanda rejected Koirala's proposal that the alliance should jointly express commitment to the Constituent Assembly elections slated for November 22.

He said his party needed more time for homework before making any decision on the matter, Nepali Congress central member Arjun Narsingh KC, who also attended the meeting, said.

The leaders, however, decided to meet again on August 23 after doing necessary homework to create an atmosphere for the polls.

During the meeting, the Maoists put forth an 18-point proposal that included declaration of Nepal a republic ahead of the polls, removal of all army personnel from the Royal Palace and adopting proportionate electoral system, KC said.

Urging the alliance to accept their demand of declaring Nepal a republican state before polls, Prachanda, however, said his party has not set any preconditions for the elections.

Prachanda clarified that they will still favour the elections even if other parties do not agree on a republic or proportional electoral system as demanded by them.

During the meeting, Koirala proposed to dissolve the House of Representatives and hold the eight-party alliance's joint gathering in the capital to express commitment to go to the polls, KC said.

Rajendra Mahato, leader of Nepal Sadbhavana Party-Anandidevi and Minister for Industry and Commerce, urged the government to expedite the dialogue with all
agitating groups, including the Madhesi ethnic organisations demanding more rights.

China suspends US meat imports

15th July 2007, 6:47 WST
China has suspended imports of chicken feet, pig ears and other animal products from seven US companies - including the world's largest meat processor - in an apparent attempt to turn the tables on American complaints about tainted products from China.
The meat was contaminated with salmonella, feed additives and veterinary drugs, according to a list posted on the website of the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine late Friday.
China's food and drug safety record has come under scrutiny in recent months following North American dog and cat deaths blamed on tainted Chinese pet food ingredients.
Worries at home and around the world have heightened as a growing number of Chinese products have been found tainted with dangerous levels of toxins and chemicals.
However, as China works to improve its food safety, authorities have prominently announced rejected imports - apparently to show it is not the only country with food export safety problems.
Frozen poultry products from Tyson Foods Inc, the world's largest meat processor, were found to be contaminated with salmonella, the Chinese product quality agency said.
Other imports barred by China included frozen chicken feet from Sanderson Farms Inc tainted with residue of an anti-parasite drug, as well as frozen pork ribs from Cargill Meat Solutions Corp that contained a leanness-enhancing feed additive, the AQSIQ said.
A Cargill spokesman denied the agency's claims, while a Tyson spokeswoman said the company knew nothing about the tainted product. Sanderson Farms officials were not immediately available for comment.
China's imports of foreign meat are growing but the country still supplies most of its own. Pork is the country's staple meat and most of the pigs are raised domestically.
However, a contagious disease that affects pigs has killed tens of thousands in China this year, and many farmers have stopped raising pigs because of worries they would lose money if the animals died. As a result, pork prices have shot up 43 per cent in the last year, a jump so serious that China's cabinet held an emergency session and Premier Wen Jiabao made public appearances to address concerns.
Additionally, though there may not be much demand for chicken feet and pig ears in the US, stewed versions of both are popular dishes in China.
The AQSIQ said frozen pig ears from Kansas City, Missouri-based Van Luin Foods USA, Inc were found to contain the leanness-enhancing feed additive ractopamine. Products from two Atlanta, Georgia-based companies were also named on the list: frozen chicken feet tainted with salmonella from Intervision Foods, and frozen pork tainted with ractopamine from AJC International, Inc.
Sausage casing from a seventh company, listed by the AQSIQ as "Thumph Foods," was also found to contain ractopamine. It was not clear whether the agency was referring to Triumph Foods of St Joseph, Missouri.
Mark Klein, a spokesman for Minneapolis-based Cargill Inc, disputed the Chinese inspectors' findings that his company's products were tainted and said Cargill hoped to resolve the issue by working with US and Chinese officials.
"We're proud of our products and our processes, and we'll be delighted to talk about them with all concerned," he said.
Cargill is the parent company of Wichita, Kansas-based Cargill Meat Solutions Corp, which as of 2005 was the ninth leading pork producer in the US, according to the National Pork Producers Council.
Libby Lawson, a spokeswoman for Tyson Foods from headquarters in Springdale, Arkansas, said the company was "disappointed with this news from China and are investigating these claims as this is the first we've heard of this development."
"We have received no notice from the Chinese government about this matter. We will work with the US and Chinese government to get this matter resolved," she said.
Attempts to reach officials with the other suspended US producers were unsuccessful Friday night.
Cargill, Van Luin and "Thumph Foods" were given 45 days to correct the problems, while the others were suspended from imports, though the AQSIQ did not say for how long.
It was also unclear whether the bans covered only the products in question, or all of the companies' imports.
A duty officer at the agency Saturday said he did not know details.
Beijing has taken steps in recent days to improve its product safety. It executed the former head of its drug regulation agency for taking bribes, and banned toothpaste makers from using a chemical found in antifreeze.
Officials have also vowed to better integrate China's fractured regulatory system, which splits responsibility among at least six agencies. Blurred lines between them often enable the country's countless illegal operations to escape detection.
China's government has thoroughly investigated each case of substandard products, the official Xinhua News Agency on Saturday quoted Li Yuanping, director of the AQSIQ's import and export bureau, as saying.
"All of them are exceptional cases," he said in the report, adding more than 99 per cent of China's exports meet standards.
"There is no such thing as zero risk. In term of food safety, it's impossible for any country to make 100 per cent of their foodstuff safe," he was quoted as saying. "China-made products should not be labeled as substandard just because of a few bad producers."
Beijing has previously rejected shipments of substandard orange pulp, dried apricots, raisins and health supplements from the US.

Sushila Koirala dies

सुशिला कोइरालाको निधन

Chandra Shekhar died of cancer

New Delhi: Former prime Minister Chandra Shekhar died of cancer in Delhi on Sunday morning. He was 80.

Shekhar died at 0845 hours IST, said a doctor of the Apollo Hospital where the former PM was admitted three months ago.

"He was suffering from multiple myloma," Dr Rakesh Chopra, senior consultant, oncology told PTI. Shekhar is survived by two sons.

Shekhar became India’s eleventh Prime Minister on November 10, 1990 and resigned on June 21, 1991. He was a Lok Sabha member from Ballia in Uttar Pradesh and chief of the Samajwadi Janata Party (Rashtriya).

FOUR DECADES IN POLITICS:

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh condoled Shekhar’s death, calling him a truly secular nationalist who was committed to people’s welfare and national development.

Former PM V P Singh described Shekhar “one of the tallest political personalities in India” and “a man of conviction and warmth.”

From Young Turk to seven-month PM

Shekhar was called Chankaya and Bhishma Pitamaha of Indian politics for his vast experience in public life.

He had friends in all political parties and believed that there are no permanent foes or friends in politics.

Shekhar was born on July 1, 1927 in a farmer's family in Ibrahimpatti in Ballia. He was a student leader in Allahabad University and joined the socialist movement in the 1950s.

His first big break in politics came in 1962 when he was elected to the Rajya Sabha as a member of the Praja Socialist Party.

In 1965 he joined the Congress and soon became the general secretary of its Parliamentary Party. As an MP, Chandra Shekhar opposed policies he thought were creating monopolies.

He and other ‘Young Turks’—leaders who opposed Indira Gandhi’s ‘elitist’ policies—in the Congress were imprisoned during the Emergency. Shekhar became the president of the Janata Party, which was formed in 1977 and formed the first non-Congress government at the Centre.

When the Nation Front came to power in 1989, Shekhar believed he must get the Prime Minister’s post but was shocked when V P Singh was chosen to head the coalition government.

Shekhar became bitter against V P Singh and deputy PM Devi Lal and worked against the government during Mandal agitation and finally brought it down in 1990.

Chandra Shekhar became Prime Minister with the Congress’ support though he himself had only some 60 MPs of his own. His government survived for seven months—a tumultuous period when India was on the brink of bankruptcy with its foreign exchange reserves almost empty.

A staunch socialist, Chandra Shekhar was forced to accept the terms of international lending institutions. His government had to pledge gold at the international market and could not present the Budget because the Congress withdrew support after alleging that it was spying on Rajiv Gandhi.

After his government fell, Chandra Shekhar gradually lost his political influence but acquired the image of an elder statesman who was respected by all parties.

He was always in support for Nepal's struggle for democracy and peace. Late Sheker, a close friend of Nepal, Nepali Congress party and specially Koirala family will be forever remembered in Nepal's political circle for his positive persuasive role in 1990 democracy movement.

Forces continue to fire on mosque

Jul 7, 2007

S ecurity forces ringing a besieged mosque in Islamabad, Pakistan, pummeled Islamic radicals with gunfire yesterday, as concern grew that many of those still inside - including children - were being held against their will. While more than 1,200 people have fled the mosque since the siege began Tuesday, authorities estimated that several hundred remain within. Only a few dozen are suspected to be hard-core radicals; others appear to want to leave, but have been prevented from doing so. The government has refrained from launching a full-scale invasion of the mosque compound, even though the militants are believed to be severely outgunned. In the meantime, thousands of heavily armed rangers and commandos have formed a tight cordon around the compound. Clerics at the pro-Taliban Red Mosque want to turn Pakistan into a theocracy, and over the past few months, students at an affiliated madrassa, or religious school, have abducted alleged prostitutes and threatened video store owners with attacks. On Tuesday, a clash between the radicals and government forces left at least 19 people dead. The government of President Pervez Musharraf has wrestled with how to respond the mosque for months, but is now demanding an unconditional surrender from the radicals. After indicating Thursday night that he would leave the mosque peacefully, firebrand cleric Abdul Rashid Ghazi said in a televised interview yesterday that he had decided to fight to the death. "We can be martyred, but we will not court arrest," he said. Ghazi's older brother, Maulana Abdul Aziz, was arrested Wednesday night as he attempted to flee the mosque disguised in a burqa. He has since been subjected to nationwide ridicule, with newspapers dubbing him "Auntie Aziz." Supplies are rumored to be running low in the mosque and in the adjacent madrassa, and Tariq Azim Khan, the state information minister, said the government's approach going forward would be "to tire them out, not fire them out." The strategy, he said, was designed to allow more people to give up before security forces attempt a raid. But militants yesterday tried to thwart those plans. At around 1 p.m., a contingent of family members of those still inside approached the mosque hoping to retrieve their loved ones. Instead, they were met with gunfire. At least one person was slightly wounded in the attack. "They said, 'We will not hand over your children,' and they fired on us," said Yasar Shah, who came to Islamabad from a village in western Pakistan. "My sister is in there. I have to get her back." A young woman named Attia, her eyes downcast and her face etched with pain, said that three of her young children were in the mosque, but that only one has come out, despite her attempts to get them all back. The other two - 5 and 9 years old - remained inside. She said she sent her children to the madrassa because her husband was addicted to drugs and she lacked the money to feed or house them. "I sent them here to study," said Attia, who goes by one name. "Now I don't know whether they are alive or not." Later in the day, some students were able to make it out of the mosque, but government officials said Ghazi appears to be keeping the rest as a way of forestalling an all-out assault. "The cleric inside is using these children as hostages," said Maj. Gen. Waheed Arshad, a military spokesman. Not everyone is hoping they make it out alive. "If my sister dies, she will be a martyr, and we will be happy," said Mohammad Khalid, who stood with other family members outside the mosque yesterday afternoon. "We are here to take her body back." The siege in normally placid Islamabad has become an emblem in Pakistan for a broader struggle against the growing threat of extremism. Musharraf, considered a key U.S. counterterrorism ally, has taken extraordinary criticism from Pakistani moderates, who feel his refusal to turn the country back over to civilian leadership after eight years of military rule has fostered greater radicalism. But Islamic terrorist groups have their own problems with Musharraf. Yesterday, unknown assailants fired a submachine gun from an urban rooftop at Musharraf's plane, though the shots did not come close and security officials said they did not regard the attack as a serious assassination attempt. Investigators later recovered the gun - along with two anti-aircraft weapons that had apparently not been fired - from a home in Rawalpindi, Arshad said. The home was located a mile or two from the air force base where Musharraf's plane took off yesterday morning as he left on a tour of flood-affected areas in the nation's south. The police were still searching for whoever fired the weapon as of yesterday evening. Musharraf has survived assassination attempts by extremist groups in the past. It was not immediately clear whether yesterday's attack was connected to the siege at the Red Mosque. Elsewhere in Pakistan yesterday, four soldiers, including two officers, were killed in a suicide attack. The attack took place in an area of western Pakistan that is known as a militant stronghold.

Land fit for heroes? Not if you're Gurkhas

Vicki Woods

Last Updated: 12:01am BST 30/06/2007

Next Wednesday evening, an 84-year-old Nepali citizen, frail and in poor health, will arrive at Heathrow on a Virgin flight from New Delhi, to be met by a near-royal reception: an official guard of honour from the Royal Gurkha Regiment. After which, the old boy will be whisked off into a merry sea of hundreds of the wellwishers and campaigners who forced the Home Office into the tightlipped and begrudging U-turn over his entry visa.

The frail Nepali is of course the (now) globally celebrated Rifleman Tulbahadur Pun VC, who has been granted "indefinite leave to remain" (ILR) in Britain, the country he was prepared to die for during the Burma campaign. He is thrilled by the thought of the ceremonial that will greet him (having done honour guard duty himself "many times"), but he is upset that he won't be able to see it clearly. (His eyesight being very poor now.)

Shamingly, I'd never heard of Tulbahadur Pun VC until I read about him on the Army Rumour Service website (ARRSE) in May. (Shamingly because my late pa fought alongside the Gurkha Rifles in Burma.) But everyone's heard of him now: he's on Wikipedia, YouTube, Facebook; he's the top hit on Google for "Gurkha VC hero".

ARRSE first mentioned him on May 24, saying he'd applied for a visa to the British Embassy in Kathmandu, which was refused, in the formulaic words of the British Consul, Richard Beeson, because Pun VC had "failed to demonstrate close ties to the UK". This lunatic judgment reduced first hundreds, then thousands of ARRSE-posters to gibbering outrage. The next day, a post popped up from Kieran O'Rourke of Howe & Co, saying they were Mr Pun's solicitors, working pro bono and preparing to appeal the Home Office decision. They'd set up an online campaign: www.vchero.co.uk, which you should look up; it reduced me to choked snuffles.

O'Rourke said his firm was working for many other Gurkhas who'd been refused ILR as well (on the same slimy "no ties" grounds). ARRSE is a site for former and serving military personnel, and it went completely crazy (as it did its sister sites for the RAF and the Navy). They began emailing MPs, MEPs, MSPs, Lords, the Queen, the Prince of Wales (C-in-C of the Royal Gurkha Regiment), the Home Office, the ambassador in Kathmandu, the hapless Richard Beeson, TV and radio stations, Viscount Slim. They urged each other to use "snail-mail" as well, to ring official phones and leave annoyingly lengthy (but constrained) expressions of outrage.

I think it was ARRSE who worked out that Joanna Lumley's father was in the same horrific firefight at the railway bridge at Mogaung in June 1943, where Pun's unbelievable bravery saved the day (and Major Lumley's life, she believes), singlehandedly. I wish I had room for the clipped, precise VC citation, but you can find it at www.vchero.co.uk. "Outstanding courage", it reads, and "superb gallantry in the face of almost certain death".

Howe & Co are in Nepal as I write, to accompany Pun VC home to Britain and seeing as many of their 2,000 other Gurkha clients as they can while they're there. TWO THOUSAND. I do hope Jacqui Smith and young Dave Miliband find that figure as interesting as I do, though it was Liam Byrne's decision, in fact, as the minister i/c letting 'em in (asylum, immigration) as well as keeping 'em out (Gurkhas).

"They're the bravest of the brave," said O'Rourke yesterday on a dodgy line from Pokhara, Nepal, where it's raining harder than here. "That's the old line about Gurkhas and it's true: these men were Gurkhas themselves, their grandfathers fought in Burma and they have sons and nephews serving now in Iraq and Afghanistan. The state some of them are in is pitiful; there's so much poverty."

Their pension is about £100 a month. "Mr Pun had a three-day journey to get it; the whole first day being carried in a wicker basket 14,000ft down the mountain. And if you're too ill to go in person, you don't get paid." He wants them all let in, all these men whose "ties to the UK" are so close you'd have to be mad not to see them. I want them let in, too. It's only 150,000 or so.

It was the sheer weight of public outrage that forced Liam Byrne's U-turn on Pun. "It was less than three weeks, and it was getting bigger all the time. Martin [Howe] went on Radio 4 and in two hours we got 6,000 emails. Not a single negative one, not one.

"But they're outraged about the Gurkhas. 'I fought with them in Malaya'; 'I've got the Burma Star, here's a £10 cheque'; 'I've never sent an email in my life - my son's helping me'." One old lady came round to our offices and tried to give us £500! In cash! We said we couldn't take it off her."

Howe & Co's next campaign is for L/Cpl Gyanendra Rai, who fought and nearly died at Bluff Cove in the Falklands. He was saved by British Army doctors, who grafted skin from a British soldier on to his appalling wounds. He still suffers from his wounds, but gets no pension at all, having been invalided out before he finished his 15 years. Look him up: his story will make you howl.

"I will try my utmost," said PM Brown on the steps of Number 10. (Actually, he said "my outmost", but whether from first-night nerves or from regional vowel shift, we'll never know.) He and his duff Defence Secretary should try their utmost to work out what "close ties to the UK" actually mean. In my book, battlefield flesh and blood come pretty close.

Crackdown On Kissing, Cuddling In Nepal Temples

Fresh out of the jaws of one danger, Kathmandu's famed temples and royal palaces now face another peril - 'immoral and disgraceful activities' on their premises.

The Basantapur Durbar Square in Kathmandu is one of the main tourist attractions of Nepal with its complex of palaces, courtyards and temples, including the residence of Kumari, the 'Living Child Goddess'. They were built between the 12th and 18th centuries by the Malla kings.

However, the sprawling buildings that are mostly unguarded and accessible to all are also the haunt of young couples and even drug users, local residents complain.

'Scenes of youths (sic) kissing and hugging each other have been a common sight on temple premises, especially during morning and evening hours,' a local daily said Thursday.

The trend has raised the concern of the Kathmandu metropolitan city authorities, who Wednesday began putting up notices warning against 'immoral and disgraceful activities... on the premises of historical temples', the Himalayan Times said.

'Photographs of people involved in such activities in public will be made public,' cautioned the notices pasted on temple walls.

Raju Shrestha, an official with the Durbar Area Conservation Programme, reportedly told the daily that the authorities took the step after complaints began pouring in from the local residents.

Many of the young pairs are students bunking school, given away by their school uniforms.

Shrestha said the sight is also regarded as unseemly by the tourists flocking to the area.

Ironically, some of the temples are famed for erotic sculptures, like the famous Khajuraho figures in neighbouring India.

The Basantapur Durbar Square has been recognised by Unesco as one of the world heritage sites.

Nepal, though one of the smallest countries in South Asia, boasts of six other world heritage sites.

The sites however became endangered due to uncontrolled building activities in Kathmandu valley and were put on Unesco's list of endangered heritage sites.

This month, the Unesco World Heritage Committee held its 31st meeting in New Zealand, where it lauded Nepal's conservation efforts and said the seven sites were now out of danger.

Female Gurkha Soldiers a new Beginning

The British defence ministry said the recruitment process for women in Gurkha regiment would begin soon with 50 young women taken in the first batch.

The Guardian news agency quoted Colonel Jeremy Ellis, the British defence attache in Nepal and commander of the Brigade of Gurkhas Nepal as saying that women will soon be alongside men, drawing the Gurkhas' famous khukuris. With the announcement of the British government to allow the entry of female members in its regiment, Yam Bahadur Gurung, a retired soldier has been running training camp for girls in Pokhara since a few months to make them fit for service.

The report said that many of the women hoping to join the British army are hardened members of the Maoist party. However, the Maoists have always been against the tradition of Gurkha Soldiers.

The British government takes in some 230 Nepali soldiers every year to serve in Gurkha regiment of its defence force. At present there are about 3,500 male Gurkha soldiers serving with the British army.

During the two World Wars, the Gurkhas suffered 43,000 casualties and won 26 Victoria Crosses, more than any other regiment.