Nonviolence for Peace and Democracy

Chairman Prachanda in West Media

2009-05-06T23:39:00.000-07:00

EDITORIAL: Nepal's Maoist double-cross
A negotiated peace agreement doesn't bring peace
Thursday, May 7, 2009

So the chairman of Nepal's Maoist radicals brags that he and his fellow-travellers tricked United Nations officials and admits that the 2006 peace deal was a sham - and gets caught on videotape doing it. The video of the recently resigned Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal, also known as Prachanda, was shot in January 2008 and just surfaced.
Revealingly, he instructs his fellow communists not to be fooled by the compromises struck with Nepal's democratic government. Seizing total power, he makes clear, remains the communist goal.
The latest crisis in Nepal is a useful case study in communist duplicity and instructive for those who believe that the path to peace with guerillas is cutting deals with them. The Unified Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) joined Nepal's government after a decade-long insurgency that left more than 12,000 dead. Under terms of the 2006 Comprehensive Peace Agreement, the Maoists agreed, among other things, to cut the size of their force in half, place their weapons under U.N. supervision and participate peacefully in the political process. In the 2008 elections, the Maoists emerged as the largest party in parliament with 30 percent of the vote, and Prachanda was named prime minister.
But the communists didn't consider the war really ended. The Maoists steadily maneuvered to increase their power with a view toward implementing their revolutionary agenda.
The latest step was an attempt to remove Nepal Army chief Gen. Rookmangud Katawal, who had resisted Maoist demands to integrate their guerrilla army into the national force. He maintained that the "former" guerrillas are brainwashed fanatics seeking to seize control of the army. He's got a point.
Nepal's President Ram Baran Yadav blocked Prachanda's move to sack Gen. Katawal. Prachandra resigned in protest. Nepal's supreme court now has the case.
Prachanda says it is a question of civilian control of the military. That's rich. Meanwhile communist thugs are taking to the streets in coordinated demonstrations calling for further intervention from the U.N.
The video of a relaxed Prachanda addressing his party faithful exposed the Maoists' cynical manipulation of the political system. In true communist spirit, Prachanda said that the compromises struck with the government were only tactical expediencies, and that the "bidroha," or rebellion, was still on. He joked about how they duped the United Nations Mission in Nepal (UNMIN) into thinking they had 35,000 fighters when in fact they only had 7,000 to 8,000, which allowed them to swell their ranks to 20,000 while claiming to be demilitarizing. And he confirmed Gen. Katawal's suspicions by saying it would take only a small number of his guerrillas to establish "complete Maoist control" of the Nepal Army.
He added that they had not turned over their weapons as required and that relief money earmarked for the victims of the civil war would be diverted to party coffers. "You and I know the truth," he slyly told his comrades, "but why should we tell it to others?"
In an unguarded moment, Prachanda revealed he is still a terrorist at heart and those who make deals with him are dupes. "Why would we abide by [the peace deal] after we win?" he said on the tape. "Why would we follow it when we have the upper hand?"
The situation in Nepal and Pakistan's Swat Valley illustrate the risks in bargaining with extremists, who do not change their goals, only their methods. The lesson is important when contrasted to Sri Lanka and Colombia, where we have seen the value of taking the fight to insurgents. U.S. deal makers should understand that there is more than one way to lose a guerrilla war. Sometimes it happens with the stroke of a pen.

Maoists Government and Nepal Army differences brought Nepal close to coup

2009-04-23T23:42:00.000-07:00

Growing differences between Nepal's Maoist-led government and the army brought the Himalayan nation agonisingly close to a military coup, media reports said Friday. The revelation came after the government attempted to remove army chief Rukmangad Katuwal, accusing him of disobeying government orders on recruitment and the sacking of eight army generals. The issue has divided the political parties that united to oust the government led by then-king Gyanendra in 2006, and is threatening to bring down the Maoist-led government. On Thursday, 25 top generals of the Nepal Army gathered at the military headquarters in Kathmandu and vowed to stop Maoist attempts of \'interference\' into military affairs, the Kathmandu Post newspaper reported, citing unnamed generals. The newspaper quoted a general as saying the army had been close to mounting a \'soft coup,\' possibly in the early hours of Wednesday. Under the plan, Maoist leaders, ministers and other selected individuals would have been arrested and former king Gyanendra put under house arrest at his Nargarjun retreat on the outskirts of the capital. Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal, Nepali Congress leader Girija Prasad Koirala and a number of other politicians were to be cut off from the public, the newspaper reported.
The plan also involved the army moving into United-Nations monitored camps of former Maoist guerrilla combatants and controlling the containers in which their weapons are stored. 'It was a plan that just was not a military coup, ' the newspaper quoted the general as saying. 'I don't want to disclose the exact timing of the move as such things are always kept secret.' 'The pressure on the army was huge, ' the officer said. The Maoist-led government had planned to integrate 19,000 Maoist combatants into the army and appoint guerrilla commander Nanda Kishor Pun as the army\'s major general after removing Katuwal, the newspaper said. On Thursday, the Nepalese prime minister met diplomats from eight countries, including the United States, India and China, seeking their support for the government action. The government then halted action on the army chief, saying they were under intense national and international pressure. Relations between the government and the army have been deteriorating since earlier this year when the army recruited nearly 3,000 soldiers, saying it needed to fill vacancies. The army also refused the integration of former Maoist fighters into its ranks, as dictated by a peace deal. The recruitment was opposed by the Maoist-led defence ministry but went ahead after the country's Supreme Court said it was legal. The Supreme Court also reinstated eight brigadier generals sent into retirement by the Defence Ministry, saying the ministry had failed to give valid reasons for its actions. The Maoists and the Nepal army fought a fierce civil war during the communist insurgency which left nearly 14,000 people dead. Hostilities between the two sides remain two and half year after the war formally ended, political analysts say. ';
Kathmandu - Growing differences between Nepal's Maoist-led government and the army brought the Himalayan nation agonisingly close to a military coup, media reports said Friday.
The revelation came after the government attempted to remove army chief Rukmangad Katuwal, accusing him of disobeying government orders on recruitment and the sacking of eight army generals.
The issue has divided the political parties that united to oust the government led by then-king Gyanendra in 2006, and is threatening to bring down the Maoist-led government.
On Thursday, 25 top generals of the Nepal Army gathered at the military headquarters in Kathmandu and vowed to stop Maoist attempts of 'interference' into military affairs, the Kathmandu Post newspaper reported, citing unnamed generals.
The newspaper quoted a general as saying the army had been close to mounting a 'soft coup,' possibly in the early hours of Wednesday.
Under the plan, Maoist leaders, ministers and other selected individuals would have been arrested and former king Gyanendra put under house arrest at his Nargarjun retreat on the outskirts of the capital.
Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal, Nepali Congress leader Girija Prasad Koirala and a number of other politicians were to be cut off from the public, the newspaper reported.
The plan also involved the army moving into United-Nations monitored camps of former Maoist guerrilla combatants and controlling the containers in which their weapons are stored.
'It was a plan that just was not a military coup,' the newspaper quoted the general as saying. 'I don't want to disclose the exact timing of the move as such things are always kept secret.'
'The pressure on the army was huge,' the officer said.
The Maoist-led government had planned to integrate 19,000 Maoist combatants into the army and appoint guerrilla commander Nanda Kishor Pun as the army's major general after removing Katuwal, the newspaper said.
On Thursday, the Nepalese prime minister met diplomats from eight countries, including the United States, India and China, seeking their support for the government action.
The government then halted action on the army chief, saying they were under intense national and international pressure.
Relations between the government and the army have been deteriorating since earlier this year when the army recruited nearly 3,000 soldiers, saying it needed to fill vacancies. The army also refused the integration of former Maoist fighters into its ranks, as dictated by a peace deal.
The recruitment was opposed by the Maoist-led defence ministry but went ahead after the country's Supreme Court said it was legal.
The Supreme Court also reinstated eight brigadier generals sent into retirement by the Defence Ministry, saying the ministry had failed to give valid reasons for its actions.
The Maoists and the Nepal army fought a fierce civil war during the communist insurgency which left nearly 14,000 people dead.
Hostilities between the two sides remain two and half year after the war formally ended, political analysts say.

Peace Studies Take Off

2008-11-24T09:18:00.000-08:00

By Dana Micucci

LOS ALAMOS, New Mexico: The Bradbury Science Museum in this drab high-desert town studded with old army barracks houses life-size replicas of Little Boy and Fat Man, chilling reminders of the human capacity for unspeakable violence. The cutely named atomic bombs, which were invented here, were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan, in August 1945.

Less than 100 miles away, or 160 kilometers, in Montezuma, New Mexico, lies United World College of the American West (UWC-USA), a two-year pre-university residential school offering an international baccalaureate diploma, with a special emphasis on peace studies and conflict resolution.

One of twelve UWC campuses worldwide and the only one in the United States, the school admits about 200 students a year, aged 16 to 19, from more than 80 countries, with the aim of fostering respect for diverse cultural, social and religious backgrounds.

Building upon its commitment to conflict-resolution training, UWC-USA established the Bartos Institute for Constructive Engagement of Conflict in 2000 to expand students' skills in managing and reducing interpersonal and inter-group conflicts locally and globally.

Renata Dwan of Ireland, a 1988 UWC-USA graduate who now works in the Department of Peacekeeping Operations at the United Nations, says her education at UWC was instrumental in teaching her how to live peacefully in a community of diverse cultures.

"Creating an environment where peace can thrive is, at the most basic level, about respecting and accepting others and realizing how subjective our perceptions are," Dwan said.

Peace studies, incorporating anthropology, sociology, political science, theology and history, aim to uncover the roots of conflict, transform the underlying causes, develop preventive strategies and teach resolution skills. More than 400 universities and colleges worldwide now offer undergraduate or graduate degrees, as well as individual courses and certificates. Most peace studies degrees are conferred at undergraduate level.

The Peace and Justice Studies Association, a group for scholars in the field, says student enrollments in university-level courses have surged in recent years.

"Our master's program had doubled in size over the past 10 years, and our doctoral program has grown considerably," said Paul Rogers, professor of peace studies at Bradford University in West Yorkshire, England. Bradford claims to have the world's largest university department of peace studies, with more than 300 students and staff.

"International circumstances such as the end of the Cold War, the tense political climate since Sept. 11, the growing number of conflicts worldwide and the security threat imposed by climate change have spurred interest in the field," Rogers said.

Like many others, Bradford's program defines peace not just as an absence of conflict and violence - known as negative peace - but also as cooperation that fosters justice and freedom: positive peace, based on human rights, equal access to education, and just social and political structures.

Peace studies began after World War II, with the founding of several research institutes, including the International Peace Research Institute in Oslo and the Center for Research on Conflict Resolution at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor.

Manchester College, founded in North Manchester, Indiana, by the Church of the Brethren, a Protestant denomination dating to 18th-century Germany, established the first undergraduate peace studies program in the world in 1948. Manhattan College in New York City and Bradford were also early pioneers.

The field expanded in the 1960s in response to the Vietnam War. Other top schools now offering a degree in peace studies include the University of Uppsala in Sweden; James I University in Castiglione, Spain; the University of Queensland in Australia; the University for Peace in Costa Rica; George Mason University in Arlington, Virginia; American University in Washington; and the University of Notre Dame in South Bend, Indiana.

"Since 2000, there has been a sharp increase, particularly in the number of doctoral peace studies programs," said Ian Harris, founder of the peace studies program at the University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, and president of the International Peace Research Association Foundation, which finances international peace research.

"With escalating violence around the world, this is becoming more acceptable as an area of scholarly research," Harris said. "New topics of investigation within peace studies, such as forgiveness, terrorism and environmental security, are expanding opportunities for study. And because non-governmental organizations, which tend to attract many peace studies graduates, are playing an increasing role in international peace-building efforts, they need to be staffed with educated leaders."

The Joan Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies at the University of Notre Dame, a leader in the field since 1986, this year added a new doctoral program, and it also reports a sharp growth in undergraduate interest in the past three years.

Other schools responding to the burgeoning interest in the field include the University for Peace - established by the United Nations in demilitarized Costa Rica in 1980 - which is planning a doctoral program and has added a new master's degree in media, peace and conflict studies, focusing on the media's role.

The Graduate Institute in Milford, Connecticut, began offering a master's degree last year in Irenic Studies - named for the Greek goddess of peace - while Guilford University in Greensboro, North Carolina, a liberal arts college founded by the Quakers, established a bachelor's degree in peace and conflict studies this year.

Many of the schools offering peace studies degrees in the United States - often small liberal arts colleges like Guilford and Manchester - have roots in religious denominations, usually Christian, including the Quakers, Brethren, Mennonites and Catholics, but not exclusively so.

"Sadly, religion is often manipulated for political ends rather than viewed as a source for healing," said Abdul Aziz Said, founder of the Center for Global Peace at American University and occupant of the Mohammed Said Farsi Chair of Islamic Peace, the only such university department in the United States.

"Teaching the common truths shared by all religions is an important component of peace studies at our university," he said. "Peace must be based on an underlying spirituality, which is ultimately a consciousness of interconnection between all people."

Fieldwork is an important part of peace studies, with students taking extended internships in conflict zones where they can learn dialogue, negotiation and mediation skills.

"Peace studies is about relationship repair on all levels, so it's crucial that these programs include both theory and practice," said Johan Galtung, a Norwegian sociologist and an early pioneer of the field who founded Transcend Peace University, a Web site that offers certificate-level courses and a master's in peace and conflict transformation.

"The field is moving beyond conflict resolution toward the teaching and practice of conflict transformation and reconciliation, which includes healing past wounds and creating long-term, sustainable peace between antagonistic parties," Galtung said.

The fruits of peace studies may sometimes be difficult to see, but that does not discourage Mary King, a professor at the University for Peace. "When you are dealing with millennia during which war has been the ultimate arbiter of conflicts, you can't expect change in a decade or two," King said.

Documentary on Bacha Khan to help spread message of non-violence

2008-11-15T09:00:00.000-08:00

Monday, November 10, 2008By by Tauseef-ur-Rahman

PESHAWAR: The first-ever documentary film prepared on legendary Pakhtun freedom fighter and preacher of non-violence, Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan, lovingly called Bacha Khan by his flowers, was premiered on Saturday in New York.

The world premiere for this feature documentary titled ‘The Frontier Gandhi: Badshah Khan, a Torch for Peace’ was presented at Annual Mahindra Indo-American Arts Council Film Festival.

Filmmaker and writer T C McLuhan, who is the daughter of famous Canadian media theorist Marshall McLuhan, prepared the documentary.

According to media reports, the film was prepared in 21 long years, encompassing almost all the aspects of Bacha Khan with particular emphasis on his philosophy of non-violence and freedom struggle.

The reports said several national and international leaders expressed reverence for Bacha Khan’s personality and struggle, while former military dictator General Pervez Musharraf commented that he (Musharraf) does not consider Bacha Khan as Pakistani patriot.

One of the most intimate parts of the film is the memory shared by Afghan President Hamid Karzai about his meeting with Bacha Khan when former was a young boy. McLuhan, 62, started the film way back in September 1987.

She got the idea of making a film on Bacha Khan after reading a book on Bacha Khan titled ‘Non-violent Soldier of Islam’ by Eknath Easwaran.

The film was shot in Pakistan, Afghanistan and India. During the making of the film she faced several problems but her long commitment to the project grew from her feelings about Bacha Khan’s “uncommon greatness.

And that was accompanied by, certainly, uncommon courage. “I felt a depth of spirit that I simply wanted to know more about,” a newspaper quoted her as saying.

The film also covers Bacha Khan’s reforms, which he initiated for the betterment of Pukhtuns. She said that he (Bacha Khan) started developing his non-violent philosophy even before meeting Gandhi.

“There is nothing surprising in a Muslim or a Pashtun like me subscribing to the creed of non-violence,” Bacha Khan says in a line from McLuhan’s film.

Bacha Khan founded a group called the Khudai Khidmatgar, or servants of God, known as the Red Shirts for the red cotton clothing worn by members.

“The more conservative figure for how many there were at their height is the one I say — more than 100,000,” McLuhan said. “Others have said more than 300,000.”

The film also showed some 82 former Khudai Khidmatgars, five of them women, mostly in their 90s: One of them had saved his complete Red Shirt uniform.

As described by director McLuhan, the heart of the film is the “tone poem” which was recited by the Khudai Khidmatgars in six languages, including Urdu and Pashto. The oath turns into verbal music, the English translation orchestrated over the still-audible voices.

“I am a Khudai Khidmatgar,” it begins. “And as God needs no service, serving his creation is akin to serving Him. I promise to serve humanity in the name of God,” was the oath every Khudai Khidmatgar supposed to take before joining the movement.

The film says after partition, the Muslim League leadership maligned Bacha Khan and his struggle and dubbed his struggle as pro-Congress and pro-Hindu. “The fabricated history undermined the genuine Pakhtun struggle for freedom”.

This is a long awaited documentary film and a beautiful addition to Bacha Khan’s memories. The people of Pakistan, particularly Pakhtuns living here and across the Durand Line will be looking forward to watch this exciting documentary.

When reached for comments about the film, NWFP Minister for Information Mian Iftikhar Hussain showered praise on T C McLuhan for making first-ever documentary on founder of Khudai Khidmatgar Tehrik, Bacha Khan.

He said the documentary would help spread the anti-violence message of Bacha Khan across the globe. “Bacha Khan started endeavours for an anti-violent Pakhtun society even when no phenomenon of war on terror or extremism existed in the country. He spread the message of peace among the warrior race,” he said.

The minister underlined the need for following in the footsteps of Bacha Khan, which he hoped would certainly herald peace and tranquillity in the restive Pakhtun dominated areas. He deplored that presently Pakhtuns were being portrayed as terrorists but the reality was altogether different, adding all the Pakhtuns adhered to the peace philosophy of Bacha Khan.

Let's Support Winning Instead of Witness

2008-11-12T12:59:00.000-08:00

Response to Betsy Raasch-Gilman'sReflection on the 2008 Protests at theRepublican National Convention
By George Lakey

As a long-time friend and comrade of Betsy Raasch-Gilman's, I'd like first to honor the tremendous faithfulness she has shown in handling her part in the RNC 2008. She didn't go into it naively but instead knew that it was a bad strategic move that was unlikely to have any political value. She didn't want the RNC in her city, and didn't want an incoherent mess of an activist response. She spent 18 months trying to minimize the damage to her city and her people, and I understand and honor the place that comes from.

At the same time, I have some disagreements with her and concerns, born partly from Training for Change experience in Philadelphia with the RNC in 2000. She and I have talked and she gave me feedback on the first draft of this essay, but my comments are my own.

In Betsy's letter and attachment on diversity of tactics, she describes a tradition of ineffectual political action that might be called "witness," full of politeness and conflict aversion. Witness is honored among the historic peace churches but also in other places, and is typified by the silent vigil. When I was working with Britain Yearly Meeting I met a cynical Quaker who defined witness as "standing up to be counted, then sitting down so you don't rock the boat." Betsy rightly joins Peter Gelderloos, Ward Churchill and other radicals who dismiss routine vigils and carefully contrived, no-risk civil disobedience gestures as irrelevant to the injustices they are meant to protest.

A Quaker, Betsy distances herself from that tradition of witness by sympathizing with another political tradition, that of the (mainly) young middle class anarchists who troop from location to location where powerholders can be found, staging their actions at those spots. I've sometimes worked with her in those mobilizations, where we facilitated workshops. The role of trainer gave us the political space to be friendly critics of these events, since the exercises and activities that we chose assisted the activists to reflect on what they were doing and get a bigger perspective, a view that we then hoped would motivate them to want to become strategic in their work.

The way Betsy writes about her experience at the St. Paul Republican National Convention implies a stronger identification with the militant traveling anarchist tradition than I've seen before, and that concerns me. My experience is that most of the militant young anarchists that go from place to place to hold their ritual bashes (and not all militant young anarchists do so) are as non-strategic and unconcerned with social change as are most pacifists who hold signs at the county courthouse every Wednesday at noon.

Neither the tame nor the militant kind of witness advances the revolution in any way I can see. In fact, I would argue that the mobilizations-where-the-powerholders-meet usually set the revolution back. First, they don't win allies for our cause because their message is hopelessly muddled by the character of the actions they do. Second, the mobilizations are giant machines for burning out activists. Many young people get disillusioned when they see that they haven't accomplished anything despite the sound and fury. And third there is the trauma: how many (even if they continue their activism) fail to heal from the violence they endure, and then bring their traumatized selves to future activist efforts?

I found Betsy's reflection a bit grim, because it implies that if we don't like the tame version of unstrategic and ineffective witness, we should join the militant version of the same thing. Her description of, and vote for, "diversity of tactics" accommodates both kinds of witness: at the RNC, both the permitted march and the window-breaking. With "diversity of tactics" we end up with twice the ineffectiveness in one phrase, and goodbye forever to strategy! Is this really our fate: to endure the rest of the twenty-first century in endless repetition of ineffective militancy and ineffective non-militancy?

Betsy has considerable credibility among activists, as well as talent and deep knowledge. It would matter if she pointed beyond the two grim options in her letter to a third social change approach: strategic nonviolent direct action. That's the tradition of Susan B. Anthony, Martin Luther King, Cesar Chavez. It's the tradition of some Quakers, too, like Alice Paul, Bayard Rustin, A.J. Muste, and Bill Moyer; when the criticism of witness comes up, she could proudly claim her identification with the strategic Friends, who are in the third tradition.

There's plenty of Betsy in that third tradition, but one wouldn't know it from this written piece. She writes, for example, "Innovation comes from the margins, not from the center. Nonviolent direct action practitioners could devise tactics that incorporate drama, tension, uncertainty, humor, beauty and danger - and we don't." Who are "we?" Certainly not Susan B. Anthony, James Lawson, Greenpeace, Daniel Hunter. "We" is obviously the nonviolent witness crowd, who Betsy seems to identify with enough to feel apologetic for it and to react against it by going to the other witness tradition with the unstrategic militants, somehow skipping over the hundreds of thousands of U.S.ers (not to mention the millions in other countries) who actually meet her desired criteria.

The folly of diversity of tactics is easily seen if one asks: how would diversity of tactics have enhanced the sit-ins? The blockade that prevented U.S. weapons from being shipped to Pakistan to massacre Bengalis? Freedom Summer in 1964?

A typical Greenpeace action? The overthrow of dictator Milosevic by Otpor?

A moment's thought shows that not only would diversity of tactics not enhance those (and a thousand other effective nonviolent actions): diversity of tactics would be disastrous! In fact, the reason why Otpor developed a nonviolent code of conduct for its campaign was precisely because its leaders had not done so in a previous student movement and were defeated by - diversity of tactics!

bI've documented a number of social movements that started out with diversity of tactics and over time realized that diversity of tactics was defeating them, then established a discipline of nonviolent action and won!

In my experience the only places where "diversity of tactics" is taken seriously are where there is no coherent strategy and no sensible goal. In such an atmosphere, activists have little to discuss except tactics and, lacking strategic criteria, fall back on moralism (as does Betsy's paper). At that point, "winning" has no meaning, and activists try to create meaning by focusing on the issue of inclusion/exclusion of other activists.

Inclusion has its appeal, if one has no hope of changing anything anyway. One might as well be inclusive. "Diversity of tactics" ends up being a cover for a militant-looking witness action - the politics of self-expression.The third tradition - strategic nonviolent direct action - sets real goals that are politically relevant, aims to mobilize allies to achieve those goals, and devises a confrontive strategy to amass sufficient power to win. It has nothing to do with either the tame or the militant types of witness, because it is about winning and making change.

Something organizers in the third approach hold in common is the power of the campaign, that is, the mobilization of energy over a specific time period to achieve a specific objective, using direct action as the driving force of the effort.

The recent film about Alice Paul ("Iron Jawed Angels") reveals the dynamics of a militant and strategic campaign, and reminds us that a direct action campaign often begins as marginal to the mainstream of a particular social movement. The National American Woman Suffrage Association was the NAACP of its day, and just as MLK had a difficult relationship with the NAACP, so also Alice Paul had a problematic relationship with the NAWSA.

One of history's fascinations is the dance between strategic nonviolent campaigns and the rest of the spectrum of allies. It is a dance of hope. The dance of the witnessers - whether the militant kind or the mild kind - is a dance of despair.

Sometimes people of Betsy's and my generation get confused about whether there's a generation gap that makes it less likely that U.S. young people will passionately join nonviolent campaigns. Somehow we forget the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (dozens of campaigns), the student anti-apartheid campaigns on U.S. campuses in the '80s, the anti-sweatshop campaigns of the '90s, the Taco Bell campaign more recently, and the 2006 campaign success by Hispanic groups on the issue of immigration, a campaign that engaged far more young people than ever come to a party convention bash.

I don't believe this is a generational question. Wanting to win is not the property of any particular generation, any more than "witnessing" is confined to one generation.

As Betsy has pointed out, wanting to win may be influenced by class. If so, I don't know why we'd want to channel our precious energy into middle class people who have the privilege of not caring whether they win or not!

There are masses of people of every generation who actually want to win. Most hold back from acting because organizers aren't starting nonviolent campaigns that are attractive, have multiple entry points for participation, and have a strategy that works. Ask the sweatshop organizers: when they do the organizing, young people commit.

Something I do hear over and over from young people, on campuses and among young anarchists in Philadelphia, is the request for elders to share our experience and perspective. That insistence was so strong at the RNC convention in 2000 that militant students from Colorado took the initiative to set up a debate between me and Ward Churchill; the young protesters wanted the issues clarified through real debate.

I believe that, in their heart of hearts, most radical young people, including middle class young people, want to hope, rather than to flame out in despair. The only hope for substantial change in the U.S. is through strategic nonviolent direct action. Because Betsy in fact knows so much about the field and has the benefit of years of experience and contact with young people, I hope that she will rejoin the third tradition, stop identifying with "witness" (whether the tame or militant type), and share with young people the empowerment given by strategic nonviolent direct action.

- George Lakey, 10/20/08

War will never be the way to freedom and democracy

2008-11-07T09:14:00.000-08:00

CAN I reply to my friend, Lyndon Rosser (Viewpoints, Echo, October 28).

I most certainly remember the cowardly act of 9/11 – but I also remember the many sustained attacks on Muslim countries throughout the Middle East.

The 9/11 attacks were carried out by al-Qaeda and not by the people of Afghanistan. In fact, I would repeat that Afghanistan and the Taliban have never fired one bullet in anger against this country.

The reason we went to war in Afghanistan had nothing to do with 9/11. It was to do with the US government’s long-term ambition to put a pipeline through that beleaguered country to satisfy their insatiable demand for oil, oil, oil.

I am most certainly not an apologist for Christian, Hindu, or Muslim fundamentalism. They all abuse women in their own despicable ways.

In the 19th century the lives of most British women were pure drudgery.

How did it change? Not by gifts from above, but by the likes of the brave Chartists and the Suffragette movement, some of whom gave up their lives in order to win the vote.

Following in their footsteps came the campaign for women’s rights, and groups such as the Valley Equality Council on which I am proud to represent Caerphilly.

The lesson from history, which our bone-headed politicians will not accept, is that you cannot bomb a country onto the road of democracy and women’s rights.

Freedom is not imposed from the outside – it comes from within.

Ray Davies,Bedwas, Caerphilly

Nonviolence Is The Right Choice—It Works

2008-11-02T08:58:00.000-08:00

By Amitabh Pal, October 30, 2008
Nonviolent resistance is not only the morally superior choice. It is also twice as effective as the violent variety.
That’s the startling and reassuring discovery by Maria Stephan and Erica Chenoweth, who analyzed an astonishing 323 resistance campaigns from 1900 to 2006.
“Our findings show that major nonviolent campaigns have achieved success 53 percent of the time, compared with 26 percent for violent resistance campaigns,” the authors note in the journal International Security. (The study is available as a PDF file at http://www.nonviolent-conflict.org)
The result is not that surprising, once you listen to the researchers’ reasoning.
“First, a campaign’s commitment to nonviolent methods enhances its domestic and international legitimacy and encourages more broad-based participation in the resistance, which translates into increased pressure being brought to bear on the target,” they state. “Second, whereas governments easily justify violent counterattacks against armed insurgents, regime violence against nonviolent movements is more likely to backfire against the regime.”
In an interesting aside that has relevance for our times, the authors also write that, “Our study does not explicitly compare terrorism to nonviolent resistance, but our argument sheds light on why terrorism has been so unsuccessful.”
To their credit, the authors don’t gloss over nonviolent campaigns that haven’t been successes. They give a clear-eyed assessment of the failure so far of the nonviolent movement in Burma, one of the three detailed case studies in the piece, along with East Timor and the Philippines.
In some sense, the authors have subjected to statistical analysis the notions of Gene Sharp, an influential Boston-based proponent of nonviolent change, someone they cite frequently in the footnotes. In his work, Sharp stresses the practical utility of nonviolence, de-emphasizing the moral aspects of it. He even asserts that for Gandhi, nonviolence was more of a pragmatic tool than a matter of principle, painting a picture that’s at variance with much of Gandhian scholarship. In an interview with me in 2006, Sharp declared that he derives his precepts from Gandhi himself.
Gandhi’s use of nonviolence “was pure pragmatism,” Sharp told me. “At the end of his life, he defends himself. He was accused of holding on to nonviolent means because of his religious belief. He says no. He says, I presented this as a political means of action, and that’s what I’m saying today. And it’s a misrepresentation to say that I presented this as a purely religious approach. He was very upset about that.”
One of the authors of the study, Maria Stephan, is at the International Center on Nonviolent Conflict. The group’s founders wrote a related book a few years ago, “A Force More Powerful: A Century of Nonviolent Conflict.” Erica Chenoweth is at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard.
This study is manna for those of us who believe in nonviolent resistance as a method of social change. We don’t have to justify it on moral grounds any more. The reason is even simpler now: Nonviolence is much more successful.--

Nepal cuts 'living goddess' funding

2008-09-22T08:44:00.000-07:00

Budget cuts to a Nepali festival celebrating a "living goddess" have sparked protests and prompted charges that the new Maoist government intends to launch a cultural revolution.
For centuries, Nepal's kings received blessings from the Kumari, a young girl from the Buddhist Newar community revered as a living incarnation of a Hindu goddess.
Last week the government announced in its first budget that a 200-dollar allowance for the festival would be stopped, leading to protests in Kathmandu with burning tyres placed to block main roads.
On Sunday, the Kumari was supposed to have been paraded around the city's old quarter, but the protests forced security personnel to remove her from a ceremonial chariot and carry her back to her palace.
"The Maoist government is trying to stamp out cultural and religious festivals," said Rajan Maharajan, one of the officials that looks after the 11-year-old girl, who is largely confined to her ornate residence.
"It's their first step towards a cultural revolution. Because of the money cutback, rituals cannot take place in the right manner," he said.
"This is a big mishap and considered very unholy and unlucky."
Nepal was the world's last Hindu kingdom until the monarchy was abolished in May, and the country is now a secular republic.
Last year King Gyanendra attended the Kumari festival as a commoner, but this year the former king -- who now lives as a virtual recluse in a palace on the outskirts of the capital -- did not make an appearance.
Finance minister Baburam Bahttarai, considered to be a Maoist ideologue, said late Sunday that the funding would be reinstated, but Newar protesters remained on the streets Monday.

Bihar Floods: Nepal apologized?????

2008-08-30T10:31:00.000-07:00

New Delhi: Nepal has now apologized for the breach in the Kosi River. Foreign Minister Upendra Yadav said that the breach was not noticed on time and that repair work was delayed.
“Nobody noticed the cracks in the beginning. When it was about to break a few people went there to repair it. But they had a feud with the local workers and the work stopped. The next day the dam collapsed,” says Upendra Yadav
Meanwhile, Bihar Chief Minister, Nitish Kumar has called for a meeting today afternoon with all NGOs and social health groups working in Bihar. About 2.4 lk people have been rescued from the flood hit districts of Bihar.
One lakh people have been relocated to relief camps. Nearly 2.7mn people in 1,600 villages have been affected, thousands of them marooned on thin strips of dry land. Damaged roads and submerged railway tracks have hampered relief efforts.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has promised the delivery of 125,000 metric tons of grain to the region. The Punjab government has also pitched in to provide 1,200 tons of free fodder

Next PM of Nepal Anyone Except Prachanda

2008-07-21T08:53:00.000-07:00

We Accept any Maoist Leader as Prime Minister Except Prachanda

Local report from Singh Durbar, Kathmandu,

"Nepali Congress, UML and MPRF asked Maoist to come with new government's modality as early as possible.

They told they will accept and participate in new government under the prime-ministership of Maoist, if they get respectful position as per the public verdict. However, they kept a serious reservation that they can accept any leader as Prime-Minister from the Maoist Party except the Prachanda.

It is the same version like Maoist where Maoist party earlier had asked them to propose any leader as president except G.P. Koirala from Nepali Congress and Madhava Nepal from UML.

This new alliance also asked Maoist to propose a leader who specially represent from indigenous, dalit, madhesi, or mahila etc."

It's not certain the above news is correct? But it can draw serious attentions of the political observers of Nepal. In fact if the parties come forward with the condition regarding the person to lead Nepal, would it be acceptable to the Maoist leadership? Certainly not.

They are not so dumb to accept this kind of condition in the formation of the Government.

So how could they want same kind of conditions to other parties? Could that be their own decision or as told by CP Manaili the Maoists were forced to put forward their condition.

I just pray that may CP's verson be wrong on Maoists condition on Presidential candidate!

Mutiny in Nepal

2008-06-22T08:55:00.000-07:00

APF men turn on officers at Bageshwori camp. Is this a mutiny?

June 22 - Armed Police Force (APF) personnel of the Bageshwori police battalion at Sumshergunj in Banke district, Nepal Sunday refused to release their superior officers who they beat up and took hostage late on Saturday.

The disgruntled policemen said seventeen officers are in their captivity including three Deputy Superintendents of Police.

Around 200 APF personnel took control of the battalion on Saturday night accusing the officers of not giving them decent food and bad conduct.

However, in Kathmandu the political parties are concerned over grabbing power leaving behind the need of political consensus to tackle the security need of the country.

The small scale of mutiny in Banke district can be an eye opener for supporters of naive integration of the PLA in the Nepalese Army.

Nepal: New Republic into Political Limbo

2008-06-21T08:44:00.001-07:00

Nepal was thrown into political limbo on Saturday after the Maoists quit the interim government of the newly republican nation and demanded the prime minister's resignation.
Nepal's former Maoist rebels stormed out of the government late on Friday, accusing a rival party of clinging to power despite being defeated in landmark elections in the Himalayan country two months ago.
"Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala must resign to open the way for the formation of a new government," senior Maoist official Dinanath Sharma told AFP after the ultra-leftists announced their resignations.
Nepal abolished its monarchy three weeks ago, but the country's two most powerful parties -- the Maoists and the prime minister's Nepali Congress party -- have been unable to reach a deal on power-sharing.
The Maoists, who dominate the new assembly elected in April, say they have the right to lead the government and choose a new president.
They say the wrangling is preventing the assembly from starting work on its chief task of rewriting Nepal's constitution.
"The constituent assembly has not been able to begin drafting a new constitution because of these power-sharing problems," said Sharma.
Nepali Congress officials say Koirala -- regarded by many as the architect of a peace deal that ended a deadly civil war waged by the Maoists and led to the creation of the new republic -- deserves to be Nepal's first president.
"The Maoist decision has shocked us, the political impasse has deepened but that doesn't mean we are out of solutions," said Nepali Congress spokesman Arjun Nasingh Khatri Chettri.
The Congress, Nepal's oldest political party which has half as many seats as the Maoists in the 601-member assembly that will chart Nepal's political future, said the Maoists' move to leave the government was premature.
"Talks with the Maoists were going positively and yet they resigned from the government just when we were nearing a conclusion," said the Congress spokesman.
The president's role is a crucial one because the person occupying the office is expected to be commander of the armed forces.
"This deadlock is creating uncertainty but we are always ready to reach a consensus through mutual understanding," said Maoist official Sharma.
The Congress official was also hopeful a breakthrough would be reached after discussions.
"The only option we have is to resolve all political issues through dialogue. We hope to come to a logical conclusion in the next few days," said Khatri Chettri.
The end of Nepal's monarchy late last month was the culmination of a rocky peace process between the former rebels, whose "People's War" claimed at least 13,000 lives, and mainstream political parties.
The two sides united in late 2005 after now-deposed king Gyanendra seized direct control of the impoverished nation, an unpopular move that ultimately led to the demise of the 240-year-old monarchy.

Indian PM hopes govt formation process in Nepal would proceed smoothly

2008-05-17T19:55:00.000-07:00

Bagdogra, May 17

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh today hoped the process of the formation of a new government in Nepal would proceed smoothly and said India would use its influence to sort out all problems that had arisen among the major political players in that country.

Addressing a press conference here on his way back to Delhi from a two-day visit to Bhutan, Dr Singh said the government was in touch with the Maoists, who had emerged as the single largest party in the recent Constituent Assembly elections and were planning to form a coalition government.

He said the Maoists had assured India that they were in a new phase of their existence and would work within the framework of a democratic system.

Dr Singh said all political parties in Nepal had an obligation to make the democratic experiment a success."Our good wishes are with them for ushering in a democracy," he added.

After the comment from the Indian PM Dr. Singh the political pundits of Nepal as well as India have raised eyebrows about Nepal's Independence in her policy making even after formation of the Maoist led new Government.

Nepal police detain 120 Tibetan protesters

2008-05-05T15:25:00.000-07:00

Police in Nepal's capital Kathmandu have baton-charged Tibetan protests and detained at least 120 demonstrators outside the Chinese embassy, police and eyewitnesses said.
The protesters shouted "Free Tibet," and "China leave Tibet," before being bundled into police vans outside the heavily-guarded embassy, an photographer at the scene said.
"Over 120 Tibetan protesters have been rounded-up near the Chinese embassy," police officer Hom Jung Chauhan said, adding that they would be released later in the evening.
At least three protesters were injured in the baton charge, witnesses said.
Last week the US ambassador to Nepal voiced concern about the treatment of exiled Tibetans by Kathmandu police.
In a meeting with Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala, Nancy Powell "expressed official US concern about the treatment of Tibetans by Nepali authorities," the embassy said in a statement.
She "urged the Prime Minister to ensure that the right to peaceful protest was maintained and that the human rights of Tibetans in Nepal are respected."
Kathmandu has seen almost daily protests since violent unrest erupted in the Tibetan capital Lhasa in March.
Nepal officially acknowledges Beijing's "One China" policy that sees Tibet and Taiwan as integral parts of China.
Nepal is home to more than 20,000 Tibetan refugees and around 2,500 still arrive annually in Kathmandu before heading to Dharamshala in northern India, home of the Dalai Lama and the Tibetan government-in-exile.
- AFP

Pro Tibet demonstrations crushed brutally in Nepal

2008-03-31T23:28:00.000-07:00

KATHMANDU, March 31

Nepali police beat Pro-Tibet protesters with sticks in Kathmandu on Monday and detained more than 280 people for demonstrating against China, police and officials said. Nepal police are always ruthless with the Tibetans.

Hundreds of Tibetans split up into small groups and tried to storm a Chinese consular office from different directions in Kathmandu.

These days a familiar sight in Kathmandu has been the Tibetan flag raising high and Tibetans waved signs and shouted slogans demanding independence for their Himalayan homeland.

The Nepal government later said it might have to take sterner action to ban such protests altogether, because of a commitment made to Beijing to prevent anti-China activities on Nepalese soil. This kind of pro China stand has been trade mark of any governments in Nepal.

"We may have to think to stop all these activities against China," said Modraj Dotel, a spokesman for the Home Ministry. "They talk against China. They raise anti-China slogans and carry placards and banners against China."Exiled Tibetans have been protesting regularly ever since a deadly riot broke out in the Tibetan capital Lhasa on March 14 followed by demonstrations in other Tibetan areas of China.

Many Tibetans are furious over the crackdown against protesters in Tibet and resent China's decades-old rule of the Himalayan region.The Lhasa riot broke out after days of protests centred on the anniversary of the failed 1959 Tibetan uprising against Chinese rule.

In Kathmandu, police broke up the rallies, grabbed the protesters by their arms or clothes and hauled them into iron-meshed vans or trucks.

"We want full freedom for Tibet," 40-year-old Sonam Dolma said. "Until then we will continue to protest and make the world listen to our voice."Police said at least 284 men and women had been detained and would be freed later.

"They have been detained according to the government policy of not allowing demonstrations against China," said Bibhutiraj Pandey, a police officer from the scene.

More than 20,000 ethnic Tibetans live in Nepal. Nepal, which gets development grants from the Chinese government, accepts Tibet as part of China. For poor Tibetans living in Nepal the internal political development in Nepal really affects their protests for their cause. Monarchy in Nepal or a new Republican Nepal as the majority of political parties in the present government claim pro Tibet demonstrations have been crushed brutally.

Now lawmaker suggests 'om' opens door for prayers 'in Jesus name'

2008-01-31T10:35:00.000-08:00

Hindu chants invocation in Colorado Senate

Posted: January 31, 2008
1:00 a.m. Eastern

By Bob Unruh

A Nevada Hindu who has opened the U.S. Senate with a faith-specific chant now has provided the invocation to open the state senate in Colorado, and a senator is suggesting since "om" has been cited, perhaps prayers "in Jesus name" again should be allowed.

The comments came after Rajan Zed, a Hindu from Reno who is making a series of appearances at state legislatures to promote Hinduism, was allowed to open the Colorado Senate, under the leadership of Senate President Peter Groff, with a Hindu chant of the "om" syllable that, according to his belief system, contains the universe.

Zed also recited the Gayatri Mantra from Rig-Veda, a prayer asking for help to "lead me from the unreal to the real."

Zed was the Hindu who last year was invited by U.S. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., to offer the first Hindu prayer in the U.S. Senate.

Indian govt plans bill to grant Darjeeling autonomy; ‘Bill aimed at foiling Gorkhaland movement’

2007-12-04T22:34:00.000-08:00

NEW DELHI, Dec 4 - At a time when Nepali-speaking people in the Indian sate of West Bengal have launched an agitation demanding a separate Gorkhaland state, the Indian government is preparing to table a new bill that grants full autonomy to the Darjeeling Hill Council (DHC).

Different organizations of the Nepali-speaking people have also termed the latest Indian government move as an attempt to sideline the demand of a separate Gorkhaland state.

According to sources, the government was planning to introduce the bill on Tuesday itself. However, after the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), India’s main opposition, expressed disagreement over the bill, the government postponed the tabling of the bill by a few days.

Sources, however, also claimed that the bill will be approved by the Indian parliament either in the current session, if possible, or during the next parliamentary session.

The Indian government had last month decided to grant the DHC a Sixth Schedule status as per the Constitution and give it a full autonomy.

As the demand for Gorkhaland has been renewed in the Darjeeling and Dooars region, the centre government has completed the necessary preparations to grant the DHC a full autonomy in haste due to the pressure from the West Bengal state government.

While various Gorkhali organisations supporting the Gorkhaland demand alleged that the bill was being introduced in order to abort the demand for Gorkhaland, the DHC supporters claim that the bill is in favour of the Gorkhalis.

As only 32.97 percent of the people of Darjeeling belong to an indigenous community, it cannot be granted the Sixth Schedule status as per the constitution.

“If the Sixth Schedule status is imposed here then all people living here will become indigenous,” claims the Gorkha Jana Mukti Morcha (GJMM), the party that revived the demand for a Gorkhaland state.

Articles 244(II) and 275(I) of the Indian Constitution have provisioned for a Sixth Schedule status. The Articles state that if various indigenous groups live in a district or area, then they can be granted the Sixth Schedule status leading to its autonomy.

However, the BJP has said that the population of the indigenous groups in Darjeeling was less, so it cannot be granted a full autonomy. “The Darjeeling population do not fall in the indigenous category from any perspective, so they should not be granted the Sixth Schedule status,” the party claims.

The pro-Gorkhaland organizations have accused that the government was introducing the bill just for the benefit of the people of certain castes on the request of Subhash Ghising to abort the demand for a separate state.

On Monday, West Bengal Chie Minister Budhhadev Bhattacharya had requested the BJP to support the bill as the government had introduced the bill in a haste fearing the intensification of the demand for Gorkhaland.

However, the BJP has suggested that the constitution amendment bill should be taken to the permanent parliamentary committee, as necessary discussions on the bill were yet to be held.

“The bill was not introduced today due to the BJP’s disagreement,” a source said.

Without the BJP’s support, the bill cannot be approved as vote from half lawmakers in parliament and two-thirds of those present in the session is required to pass any bill as per the constitution.

The Gorkhaland movement was started in 1986 demanding a separate state for the Nepali-speaking Gorkhalis in Darjeeling under the leadership of the Gorkha National Liberation Front (GNLF) headed by Subhash Ghising. However, Ghising postponed the movement on the request of then Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi two years later for setting up a Council.

Darjeeling, Kurseong and Kalimpong lie within the Council and it also covers Lohagadh Tea garden and Forest, Sukna Forest, Panighatta, Chhoto Adampur, Paharu, Mahanadi Forest and some parts of Siligudi among others.

Although the council was formed on August 2, 1988, the centre and West Bengal government and Ghising signed an agreement only on December 6, 2005 to grant autonomy to the region.

However, the agreement was protested by even some supporters of Ghising who, within hours of the signing of the agreement, said that the struggle for a separate state would go on.

Different Gorkha organizations have started protests in Darjeeling and other areas to oppose the government’s proposed bill.

In protest against the special status to the Darjeeling hills- the proposed Sixth Status schedule, the GJMM has accelerated their series of agitation in the area.

“The Hill Council is not our demand, it is a separate Gorkha state,” said Uttam Chhetri, Acting President of the Bharatiya Gorkha Parisangh’s New Delhi branch, “The bill introduced to grant autonomy to the Hill Council is against the spirit of the constitution and is illegal.”

The GJMM has also started a relay hunger strike demanding a separate state in Darjeeling, Kurseong and Kalimpong while the authorities have beefed up security fearing that the protests might take a violent turn.

The GJMM has been demanding that a “state carving out the areas of the district of Darjeeling and the contagious areas from the Terai and the Dooars region of the district of Jalpaiguri within the ambit of the Constitution,” as they have distinct dissimilarities with the rest of the West Bengal in terms of historical, geographical, linguistic, cultural, socio-economic, political, ethnic causes and factors.

In a memorandum submitted to the local authorities, the GJMM has accused the Centre and the state government of forcefully imposing the Sixth Schedule status to the Darjeeling hills.

“If the bill is passed, it would disintegrate the Gorkha community in the line of caste, colour, creed, and religion,” the party said.

As Ghising cannot represent the Darjeeling people, the party claimed that he has no right to sing any agreement on their behalf.

Major party continuing HR violations

2007-12-03T00:36:00.000-08:00

KATHMANDU, Dec 3 - Chairperson of the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) Kedarnath Upadhyaya on Sunday blamed "a major political party" for continued violation of human rights in the country. Upadhyaya, however, did not name the party.
Speaking at a program with representatives of political parties, organized by the commission, Chairperson Upadhyaya said, "The cadres of a major political party have continued violating human rights across the country."
He said people had hoped there would be peace and incidents of rights violations would stop after Maoists joined the peace process. "But there has been no improvement in the human rights condition," he said, adding, "The existence of the state is not felt in many parts of the country; especially in the east and mid-eastern regions."
He said the culture of impunity has grown. "Free press, educational institutions, business entrepreneurs and individuals have been terrorized across the country," he said.
While stating that absence of security has further deteriorated the human rights situation, he said the morale of security personnel has completely
eroded. "All political parties need to boost the morale of security personnel to protect human rights across the country," he said.
Gauri Pradhan, a commissioner, said NHRC would soon introduce its three-year strategic plan, based on the Comprehensive Peace Accord and the Interim Constitution.
Representatives of Nepali Congress, CPN (UML), CPN (Maoist), People's Front Nepal, Rastriya Janashakti Party and Rastriya Prajatantra Party charged that Maoists have continued taking the law in their hands.
Gopal Pahadi of Nepali Congress said Maoists should respect law and order of the nation.
Dr Prakash Chandra Lohani of RJP criticized the government for allowing Maoists to operate their "parallel government".
Dinanath Sharma of Maoists, said his party would take action against those who violate human rights. "We always cooperate with the government to protect and promote human rights," he said, adding, "Our cadres may have been involved in some minor incidents of human rights violations."

REVIVE 1990 CONSTITUTION!! SUJATA KOIRALA

2007-11-18T23:22:00.001-08:00

The daughter of the incumbent Prime Minister, Ms. Sujata Koirala has said that the country must revive the now defunct 1990 constitution in order to get the present political deadlock sorted out.

"The regular session of the upcoming parliament can in no way declare a republic", she stressed.

She made these observations today while talking to a select group of media men in Kathmandu.

“I think we have had enough of the Maoists and that the Maoists were trying to entrap the Nepali Congress in an “ambush” to get their demands met with”, Sujata declared.

According to her, her father became too lenient in the past and thus the Maoists demanded so many things from him and my father complied with.

“This would not happen now, enough is enough”, Sujata emphatically added.

Sujata also pleaded for the “revival of the now defunct parliament” formed under the 1990 constitution.

Her fresh statement has some “substance” in it?

A political bombshell indeed which has so far recorded no “political causalities”.

Could be in the pipe line…..

Analysts remain puzzled as to whether Sujata hurled this political bombshell on her own or was “instructed” secretly by her august father Girija Prasad Koirala.

To recall, Sujata has visibly some respect and honor for monarchy and thus she has been championing the cause for a “ceremonial” form of the Royal institution in the country.

Nevertheless, the timing of this bombshell has come close on the heels of the regular parliamentary session.

Often Sujata speaks aloud and that happens in Nepal.

It remains yet to be seen that which political forces dear to denounces her theory. Although considered highly controversial she has been always popular with the mass. Some critics even visualized her as the successor of PM Koirala.

What is for sure is that this bombshell will reverbarate for some time to come in Kathmandu's political circuit and would force some analysts to go deep into what Sujata's new theory contained underneath.

Pakistan Army is promoting Terrorism all over the world !!!

2007-11-09T08:10:00.000-08:00

General Musharraf imposed emergency in Pakistan on 3 November 2007, promulgated the Provisional Constitution Order (PCO) and suspended the Constitution, placing the country under one-man rule.

Fifty-five out of 97 judges of the Supreme Court and the four High Courts refused to take the oath of allegiance under the PCO. Thousands of lawyers were brutally beaten and arrested all over the country when they were protesting against the new PCO. The judges who refused to accept the illegal actions of General Musharraf were came under house arrests.

Hundreds of human rights activists, including Ms. Asma Jahangir United Nations Special Rapporteur on Religious Freedom were arrested after the proclamation of state of emergency.

General Musharaff issued orders which introduced tough changes barring media persons from criticizing the head of the state, military and the newly inducted puppet Judiciary, and private television news channels were put off air. Secretary General UNO and international Community and International Federation of Journalists, as well as the opposition parties in Pakistan e.g. Pakistan Peoples Party, Pakistan Muslim League, Pakistan Tehrik-e-Insaf and Awami National Party, have condemned the imposition of emergency rule in Pakistan and expressed their anger over the arbitrary detention of political leaders, senior Judges, lawyers and human rights activists.

The situation of Pakistan is deteriorating day be day. The present action of Chief of Army Staff is even against himself as President and it shows his no confidence on his selected Government and his own rule.

The real story is that Pakistan Army has created a Drama of Terrorism in the world to grab dollars from USA and it has been proved by Pakistan Army that they are making fool of Pentagon the most stupid Intelligence Institution of the World, All the TALIBAN and Islamic Terrorism has been created by Pakistan Army itself and it is still supporting these forces which is by two examples.

Musharraf took the stand that he imposed emergency and termination the Fundamental Rights and Constitution of Pakistan because of the threat of Terrorism. But just on the second day of Emergency General Musharraf Army released 28 Terrorists for releasing its 240 Army Personals in Wazeristan.

Yesterday Pakistan Army vacated posts for TALIBAN in Swat and all the area has been handed over to these Religious Fundamentalists, Fanatics and Terrorists. Pakistan Army supplies Arms to these Terrorists by surrendering their personals to them and then reaching an agreement with for releasing the terrorists and the army personals.

Pakistan Army and its Chief General Musharraf are serving the interests of Mr. Bush and Mr. Bush is supporting General Musharraf and giving USA tax payers money for his personal benefit.

Pakistan Army is promoting Terrorism all over the world and Pakistan has become a Heaven for Islamic Terrorists. Pakistan Army is the biggest sponsor of the Islamic Fundamentalism and Terrorism in the world.

It is making fool of Pentagon, but it is irony that General Musharraf and Pakistan Army are making lame excuses of curbing terrorism and justifying his emergency. It is fact tat the hold and power of Terrorists and Islamic Fundamentalists grew rapidly in a few days after imposing Emergency in Pakistan.

USA is focusing on one man General Mushrraf to combat terrorism and he is busy in strengthening himself by getting the dollars and power in Pakistan. He was feeling threat from the emerging Independent Judiciary in Pakistan therefore he imposed emergency just to get rid of Independent judges who were becoming free and men of consciousness.

The only purpose of the actions of General Musharrf was to curb the independence of Judiciary.

I hereby request all the peace lovers to write letters to their Governments and ask for condemning the actions of General Musharraf and demanding for :

i.Reinstating the Constitution
ii. Reinstating the sacked Judges
iii. Release the political prisoners , human rights activists and lawyers
iv. Handing over Government to Civilian
v. Curbing Fanaticism and Terrorism by Stopping Army support to Terrorists

Prof. M.Ismail

RISE

War on king boomerangs on Nepal government, Maoists

2007-10-30T23:54:00.000-07:00

Kathmandu, Oct 31 The war started by Nepal's government and the Maoists on King Gyanendra is now on the verge of boomeranging with the warriors facing a severe blow Wednesday, when parliament resumes a critical debate.

For the third consecutive day Wednesday, legislators are arguing over the Maoist demand for the immediate abolition of monarchy after the rebels refused to heed Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala's request to withdraw their demand and avert a confrontation.

The debate, begun last month, shows no sign of compromise with Maoist supremo Prachanda refusing to abandon the demands and Koirala's Nepali Congress party also saying that it had been as flexible as possible.

Now the countdown has begun to a vote that instead of resolving the dilemma is likely to plunge the country into another crisis.

If the debate is wrapped up Wednesday and a vote held, the rebels are unlikely to garner a two-third majority, which is required to push their demands through.

Though they are the second largest party in parliament with 84 MPs, so far they have the committed support of only three more legislators from two minor left parties.

To get the required 218 votes in a house of 327 MPs, they must get the support of the Nepali Congress, the largest bloc with 132 legislators.

Since at the start of the debate, the Nepali Congress asked its members to vote against the Maoist proposal, the rebels are likely to face a defeat.

However, they have indicated that they would not accept a drubbing with grace.

The rebels, who gave up their 10-year-long guerrilla war last year and joined the government in April, have warned that if defeated, they would start a new 'people's revolt' that, though peaceful, would have a crippling effect.

They have also cautioned that a defeat could snap their alliance with the ruling parties, which had ended the civil war.

If the guerrillas go on the warpath, it would be impossible for Koirala to hold the critical constituent assembly election.

Earlier scheduled for 2006, Koirala first postponed it to May 2007 and then to November, angering the rebels who left the cabinet in protest and began their own campaign against the election.

As a result, this month, Koirala once again called off the November election indefinitely, losing credibility both at home and abroad and triggering a demand for his ouster.

With the international community and the UN pressurising him to hold the stalled election at the earliest, the reluctant PM has now pledged to hold the exercise in March 2008. If he fails to do so, the very existence of the government would be jeopardised.

The continuing squabbling has come as a reprieve for the king, who would have faced an acute danger of being sacked if the election had been held last year, when his unpopularity ran high after trying to rule the country with the help of the army.

However, the delay in holding the polls has stoked fresh public resentment against the parties, who have a nearly two decade-old record of corruption and incompetence, and made people begin to forget the atrocities of the royal regime.

Beautiful Nepal

2007-10-29T09:13:00.000-07:00

Obama Promises a Forceful Stand Against Clinton

2007-10-28T21:17:00.000-07:00

COLUMBUS, Ohio, Oct. 27 — Senator Barack Obama said he would start confronting Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton more directly and forcefully, saying Friday that she had not been candid in describing her views on critical policy issues, as he tries to address mounting alarm among supporters that his lack of assertiveness so far has allowed her to dominate the presidential race.

Mr. Obama’s vow to go on the offensive comes just over two months before the first votes are cast for the Democratic nomination, and after a long period in which his aides, donors and other supporters have battled — and in some cases shared — the perception that he has not exhibited the aggressiveness demanded by presidential politics.

In an interview on Friday that was initiated by his campaign to signal the change of course, Mr. Obama said “now is the time” for him to distinguish himself from Mrs. Clinton. While he said that he was not out to “kneecap the front-runner, because I don’t think that’s what the country is looking for,” he said she was deliberately obscuring her positions for political gain and was less likely than he was to win back the White House for Democrats.

Asked in the interview on Friday if Mrs. Clinton had been fully truthful with voters about what she would do as president, Mr. Obama replied, “No.”

“I don’t think people know what her agenda exactly is,” Mr. Obama continued, citing Social Security, Iraq and Iran as issues on which he said she had not been fully forthcoming. “Now it’s been very deft politically, but one of the things that I firmly believe is that we’ve got to be clear with the American people right now about the important choices that we’re going to need to make in order to get a mandate for change, not to try to obfuscate and avoid being a target in the general election and then find yourself governing without any support for any bold propositions.”

For months, Democrats, including some within his campaign, have questioned whether his promise to pursue a brand of politics that transcended partisanship had so handcuffed him that he could not compete in the most partisan of arenas.

Alan D. Solomont, a former contributor to both Clintons who is now raising money for Mr. Obama in Boston, said there was a growing consensus that Mr. Obama had to ratchet up his intensity and draw sharper distinctions with Mrs. Clinton, of New York, and other rivals.

“The only way that he’s going to be able to be clear with the American people,” Mr. Solomont said in an interview, “is to draw a distinction between his candidacy and his ideas about change and those of other candidates. It’s fair to say that he is beginning to do that, but he hasn’t done enough yet.”

In the interview, Mr. Obama acknowledged that he had held back until now, though he asserted it was a calculated decision to introduce himself in early voting states before engaging opponents. He said he regularly took lines out of speeches prepared by his campaign that he felt were “stretching the truth.”

But Mr. Obama, of Illinois, said the plan had always been for him to begin taking on Mrs. Clinton more directly in the fall. And he glared and responded no when asked if he lacked the stomach for confrontational politics. “It is absolutely true that we have to make these distinctions clearer,” he said. “And I will not shy away from doing that.”

The interview came amid growing signs that Mr. Obama was looking for a fresh start for his campaign after nine months in which his aides said they were startled by the effectiveness of Mrs. Clinton’s campaign, and worried that her support was not as brittle as they had once believed.

Mr. Obama has built up his campaign war room, started frequently traveling with a speechwriter — reflecting concern of his aides that his public speeches tend to be long-winded — and begun spending more money on television advertising in Iowa and New Hampshire.

His senior aides said they were now spending much of their day fielding calls from concerned donors and other supporters asking why Mr. Obama was not challenging Mrs. Clinton more forcefully and warning that he could cede the role of the main anti-Clinton candidate to former Senator John Edwards of North Carolina, who is running an aggressive campaign in Iowa. Typically, one aide said, the supporter asks some version of the same question: “What happened to the Obama we saw at the 2004 Democratic convention?”

At the same time, aides said there was disagreement in the campaign about whether he should now begin investing all his time in Iowa, where polls show him to be running neck-and-neck with Mrs. Clinton and Mr. Edwards, hoping that a victory there would give him a lift in New Hampshire, where polls show him trailing.

Morale at his Chicago headquarters, aides said, has been dragged down by the perception that Mrs. Clinton is lapping Mr. Obama. And aides said that they had been struggling for weeks for a balance between offering a contrast with Mrs. Clinton and avoiding the anger that they said had marked Mr. Edwards’s candidacy.

In a 53-minute interview over breakfast aboard a chartered jet that brought him here from Chicago, Mr. Obama said Mrs. Clinton had been untruthful or misleading in describing her positions on problems facing the nation. He accused her of “straddling between the Giuliani, Romney side of the foreign policy equation and the Barack Obama side of the equation.” He said that she was trying to “sound or vote” like a Republican on national security issues and that that was “bad for the country and ultimately bad for Democrats.”

Mr. Obama suggested that she was too divisive to win a general election and that if she won, she would be unable to bring together competing factions in Washington to accomplish anything.

“There is a legacy that is both an enormous advantage to her in a Democratic primary, but also a disadvantage to her in a general election,” he said. “I don’t think anybody would claim that Senator Clinton is going to inspire a horde of new voters,” he said. “I don’t think it’s realistic that she is going to get a whole bunch of Republicans to think differently about her.”

Asked about Mr. Obama’s remarks, Mrs. Clinton’s spokesman, Howard Wolfson, said: “Senator Obama once promised Americans a politics of hope. But now that his campaign has stalled he is abandoning that strategy and is engaging in the same old-style personal attacks that he once rejected. We are confident that voters will reject this strategy, especially from a candidate who told us he would do better.”

Mr. Obama said he was not concerned by a repeated spate of national polls showing lopsided support for Mrs. Clinton. “The national press for the last three months has written glowingly about her and not so much about me, so it’s not surprising,” he said. He described himself as an “underdog” running against a campaign that has “a 20-year head start when it comes to managing the spin of the national politics.”

Many people are only beginning to focus on the race now, and early front-runners can easily stumble when the voting starts. But the Obama campaign has faced a political narrative in recent weeks that even Mr. Obama’s aides have described, in no small part because of a succession of polls, as establishing Mrs. Clinton as the front-runner. In one small example, a member of Mr. Obama’s national finance committee, Robert Farmer, told the campaign last week that he was formally switching allegiances to the Clinton campaign. Mr. Farmer contributed money to five Democratic presidential candidates this year, including the maximum amount allowed to Mr. Obama, Mrs. Clinton and Mr. Edwards.

Though Mr. Obama’s criticisms of Mrs. Clinton were sharper than he has voiced during this campaign, they were, nonetheless, still somewhat restrained, certainly when compared with the criticisms that have been voiced of Mrs. Clinton by Mr. Edwards and much of the Republican field.

Mr. Obama rejected the suggestion that he had been constrained in taking on Mrs. Clinton more forcefully because of his promise, at the start of the campaign, to avoid the bitter partisanship of past campaigns. Mr. Obama, who aides suggested might be spending too much time reading blogs and newspaper clippings about the campaign, dismissively noted how the Clinton campaign regularly raised that line against him.

“I’ve been amused by seeing some of the commentary out of the Clinton camp, where every time we point out a difference between me and her, they say, ‘What happened to the politics of hope?’ which is just silly,” he said, laughing.

Asked why it was silly, he responded: “The notion that somehow changing the tone means simply that we let them say whatever they want to say or that there are no disagreements and that we’re all holding hands and singing ‘Kumbaya’ is obviously not what I had in mind and not how I function. And anybody who thinks I have, hasn’t been paying attention.”

That said, Mr. Obama and his campaign have until now frequently avoided potential confrontations. Mr. Obama’s aides said, for example, that they had declined an invitation from some networks to appear on Sunday morning talk shows after Mrs. Clinton the day she appeared on five in one day to talk about her health care plan.

Clinton Could Lose Nomination _ If. ...

2007-10-27T22:09:00.000-07:00

WASHINGTON - Memo to the Democratic presidential candidates: You can still beat Hillary Rodham Clinton, but you better act fast.

The former first lady looks more likely to win the nomination every day, showing strength in polling, fundraising and setting the campaign agenda.

She's so strong, in fact, that the race has become about her. And Democratic operatives from presidential campaigns past and present say the only way for any other candidate to win the nomination is to make an even stronger case against her.

"If this were a wedding, we'd be at the 'speak now or forever hold your peace' part," said Steve McMahon, who advised Howard Dean in 2004. "If you're a candidate hoping to get past her, the time for nuance and veiled references has passed."

There is always the chance that Clinton could make an error in the next couple of months that would hurt her chances. Some argue that her vote against Iran at a time when anti-war Democrats are concerned about war there has the potential to damage her standing.

But Democratic insiders, including some working on various 2008 campaigns who spoke on condition of anonymity, agree that barring a major stumble, Clinton is all but sure to win the nomination if she wins the opening contest in Iowa. She is polling well in the states that follow, and no one else would be able to challenge her unless an Iowa loss made her look vulnerable.

"If Hillary wins Iowa, she can practically start shopping for a running mate," said California-based Democratic strategist Dan Newman.

But that's a big if. Clinton has called Iowa her "hardest state," and it's the best , some say only , chance her opponents have to get past her.

"At this point the trailing candidates need to not only catch a huge wave, they also need one to crash on top of Hillary," Newman said. "They need to upend the conventional wisdom that is gelling among donors and others that she can't be stopped, and they need to prove it in Iowa."

The most recent polls in the state show a close race among Clinton and fellow Sens. John Edwards and Barack Obama.

Edwards has been making a more vigorous case recently against Clinton's ability to win a general election. He's also led criticisms of her that have been picked up by other candidates , that she's too connected to lobbyists and that her vote to declare the Iranian Revolutionary Guard a terrorist organization could be a repeat of her mistake in voting for the Iraq war.

Those criticisms haven't hurt her yet, but they could as more people begin to pay closer attention in the closing days of the race. Some advise that the Clinton campaign should consider fighting back against Edwards or anyone else who takes her on so directly.

"While Edwards is attacking her as being unelectable, the GOP is also saying she is polarizing and out of the mainstream," said Donna Brazile, who ran Al Gore's campaign in 2000. "Time to deck them or push back."

Joe Biden and Chris Dodd have been more aggressively criticizing her on foreign policy. Obama says there needs to be a change away from Washington insiders while generally avoiding mention of her name.

And at a time when Obama needs to be winning voters away from Clinton, instead he's been playing defense. Just this week he's been under fire from gay activists who objected to a participant in his gospel concert series, and his campaign agreed to return some donations after The Washington Post reported that they came from children.

Most of those interviewed say Obama needs to get tougher on Clinton.

"I don't buy this `Politics of Hope' means you can't engage the next candidate," said strategist Jamal Simmons. "People want to be hopeful, but people want to know you are tough enough to win and you are tough enough to lead the country."

In comparison to Obama, Simmons said, "people are very clear what John Edwards is running for. He's there fighting for the working man and woman, and he's taking his shots. Even at some times he may seem to the outside world to be too strident and hitting it too hard. But he's hitting, and people respect that."

But some inside the Clinton and Obama camps think it would be a mistake for Obama to go on the attack in a multi-candidate race. They ask: Why not sit back and let Edwards and others try to take her down, while he tries to rise above?

"I think with name ID as high as Senator Clinton's, there is little new information about her that would change voter's minds," said Erik Smith, who worked for Dick Gephardt in 2004. "A candidate can move late in Iowa if making a strong case for themselves as the best candidate to win the general."

That happened in the last Iowa presidential primary. In 2004, Dean was the front-runner, and Gephardt went after him hard. Dean and Gephardt fell into third and fourth place respectively in the caucus, behind John Kerry and Edwards.

"Her opponents will have opportunities to slow her down, but the risks of doing what that will take come at a considerable risk," said Democratic consultant Michael Feldman, who works for Gore. He is not aligned with any campaign this election cycle, but has donated to Clinton. "Take Senator Obama, for example. It's hard to slash and burn when you have said that you want to move beyond negative campaigning. He runs a serious risk of undermining his brand."

And there's no indication it would work since she's done well with what's come at her so far. "There is no doubt that she will be tested, but she is running the kind of campaign that indicates her ability to roll through those inevitable challenges," Feldman said.

Russian traveller hitch-hikes round the world

2007-10-26T20:27:00.000-07:00

A Russian traveller is on an expedition to study different cultures and tradition in different parts of the world. His mode of travel depends on the 'free rides' that he is offered along his route.

Sergey Chikachov recently arrived in Patna from Nepal and is now on his way to Varanasi (Benaras).

"The main purpose of my expedition is to study various cultures, traditions, lifestyles, ethnic groups and languages," said Sergey Chikov.

He is determined to visit different places of the world without spending a penny from his pocket on travelling. He has no vehicle of his own, nor has he any money for buying tickets for his travel.

Sergey narrates people about the objective of his tour and usually gets a free-ride to his next destination.

"I found him standing on the roadside. He asked for a lift and I obliged. He knew that the truck would go to Benaras (Varanasi). I understand a bit of English. He showed me his notebook through which I got to know about his intentions of travelling round the world," said Sanjay Yadav, a truck driver.

Naveen Kumar, the Deputy General Manager of Tourism Department, saw him standing on the road in the middle of the night, Sergey was offered a lift and also accommodated at the State guest house.

"It's a unique attempt I believe his experience would be a real one. " said Naveen Kumar.

After exploring more and more of cultures, ethnic groups and people, Sergey hopes to pen down his travelogue one day.

Sergey claims to have travelled to China, Laos, Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore and Nepal. He did not spend a single penny on his air tickets or other conveyance. He rested in hotels without paying any money.

Sergey has a number of passports that he acquired while visiting several countries in the last three years of globe-trotting. After India, he has plans to tour Pakistan, the United States of America and Europe to study world cultures. He hopes to finish his 'study tour' in the next three years. (ANI)

Nepal Secularism or Socialism?

2007-10-22T22:35:00.000-07:00

What will be the final destiny of Nepal Socialism or Progressive Secularism? It is hard to predict yet, although a lot of political developments are taking place in a very fast pace. Not a single political party of Nepal has opposed the declaration of Secular State. Even the so called rightists’ parties that were close to the Palace and the King never showed their displeasure in declaration of the end of HINDU state. Can Nepal be return to a Hindu state without the support of any Political party?

Politically, almost all major parties in Nepal are based on the Socialist ideology. They want to identify themselves as socialists. The largest democratic party of Nepal NC (Nepali Congress) has the basic principle nationalism, democracy and socialism; not to mention of other declared communists parties. Looking at the size and the number of people the parties’ represent one can simply come to the conclusion that Nepal is on its way to socialism.

What kind of socialism the political parties want to establish in Nepal can be debatable because each political party defines its own form of socialism? I am reminded of the popular saying “socialism is that hat even dictators try to wear it, it does not matter whether it fits them or not”.

Hospitals Full of Victims and Solidarity With Bhutto

2007-10-20T14:55:00.001-07:00

KARACHI, Pakistan, Oct. 20 — The wards of the city’s hospitals on Saturday were still full of survivors of Thursday’s bomb blasts on Benazir Bhutto’s procession from the airport — 540 were wounded, according to the official count — and even in their hospital beds they are still wearing their party’s colors: red, black and green armbands, baseball caps and identity cards.

In Ward 17 of the Jinnah Postgraduate Hospital, where volunteers who served as security guards around Ms. Bhutto’s truck were taken, the mood was one of solidarity and defiance. Local party officials toured the wards, visiting the wounded and offering assistance. At one point, a shout of “Bhutto” went up.

“We were ready to sacrifice everything for Bhutto,” said Abdur Rauf, 23, a student leader from Ms. Bhutto’s Pakistan Peoples Party who had shrapnel injuries to his legs. “Even if I get a call from her now, I would go.”

He and a number of the injured around him were Janisars-e-Benazir, literally those who would lay down their lives for Benazir. They were the volunteers wearing white T-shirts who formed a human shield around Ms. Bhutto’s truck as it pushed through the crowds through this port city on Thursday.

Each had his own description of what happened, and in the chaos of the explosions — which killed at least 134 — few had a clear picture of what caused the explosions. But overwhelmingly, they believed that the government was to blame for the attacks, and few blamed Al Qaeda or other Islamist militant groups.

“Why were the street lights turned off at that time?” Mr. Rauf said. “It indicates a conspiracy of the government.”

He added that the deputy leader of the party, Makhdoom Amin Fahim, had been calling members of the government to get the lights turned on, but it did not happen.

He also complained that even though Ms. Bhutto had warned that suicide bombers were planning an attack on her, the government had only provided six or seven police cars to flank her bus. She should have been given the level of security that is given to President Pervez Musharraf, he said.

“You saw us with the T-shirts,” he went on. “We were not letting anyone through the cordon. The police should also have been careful.”

Muhammad Bashir Ahmed, 48, a painter whose face and hair were burned in the second, larger explosion, said those responsible could not be Muslim. “It was someone very evil,” he said.

Asked who he thought was behind the attack, he said, “If I had known who did it, would I have left them alone?”

Another of the janisars kissed the picture of Ms. Bhutto’s father, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, the founder of the Pakistan Peoples Party who was executed by the military dictator General Zia ul Haq in 1979, on an identity card hanging round his neck. “I can lay down my life for this picture,” he said.

He said he doubted the picture of a dead man released by the government was really the suicide bomber. “They are trying to fool the people,” he said.

Such distrust of the government is widespread among members of the Pakistan Peoples Party and supporters of Ms. Bhutto, many of whom have been imprisoned or suffered repression or violence at the hands of the police through their years in opposition, especially during the 11 years of military dictatorship after Mr. Bhutto was executed.

The passionate support they feel for the party and its leader stems from the days of Mr. Bhutto, a charismatic leader who perhaps did more than any other politician to awaken a political conscience in the masses in Pakistan. His election slogan — “Food, clothing and shelter” — is still repeated by party faithful today.

Supporters refuse to believe the allegations of corruption against Ms. Bhutto, saying that the government has failed to make the charges stick.

It is the popular national support and the traditional Socialist agenda of the party that threatens many in government and in the security establishment, party supporters said.

“They were planning that Benazir would be killed,” said Mr. Rauf, the student leader. “They don’t want democracy. If there is democracy then only one party will rule and that will be the Peoples Party, and the common man will rule.”

His friend Faqir Zakir Hussein, 28, added, “She is the most popular politician and this is what the government does not like.”

Pakistan's Embrace of Bhutto May Prove Short-Lived

2007-10-17T23:13:00.000-07:00

Oct. 18 (Bloomberg) -- When Benazir Bhutto lands in Pakistan today after eight years in exile, party supporters and average citizens are expected to pour into the boulevards of Karachi to greet her.

That warm embrace may be short-lived.

Bhutto's first hurdle in a bid to be elected prime minister for a third time will be to consolidate a fragile power-sharing arrangement with her former rival, President Pervez Musharraf, 64. The 54-year-old Harvard graduate's next challenge will be to shore up her popularity and reputation as a champion of democracy, which have suffered from the deal with Musharraf.

``It hurts her with Pakistanis who want real democracy, not half-way, phony democracy, and that includes people in her own party,'' said Bruce Riedel, a former CIA analyst now with the Brookings Institution's Saban Center in Washington, who specializes in Pakistan.

``She's sold out the Pakistani democratic movement in order to gain her own chance of being prime minister again,'' Riedel said, ``and she doesn't come out looking very good.''

Thousands of Bhutto's supporters reached the Karachi airport early this morning to prepare for her arrival from Dubai at 1 p.m. local time.

Posters and Billboards

Posters and billboards have been put up all across the commercial capital of Karachi, Pakistan's biggest city, welcoming Bhutto back to the country. Her Pakistan People's Party's red, black and green striped flags have been hoisted at intersections and along the city's major roads.

Party supporters also set up booths where they gathered in the days leading up to today's arrival to distribute sweets, dance to pro-Bhutto songs and shout slogans. Celebrations including fireworks and live music, continued through the night yesterday.

``We are hearing reports that more than a million people have gathered at the Karachi airport from all over the country to welcome me home,'' Bhutto told reporters at the Dubai airport before boarding the flight to Karachi. ``I also hear that there are even more people gathering in other parts of the city. It will be historic.''

Bhutto is dressed in the green and white colors of the Pakistani flag and accompanied by her sister Sanam, according to televised images.

Hundreds of people who had traveled from various parts of the country gathered outside Bhutto's residence in southern Karachi late yesterday, where tents had been put up for them to spend the night.

Families and Livelihoods

``We left our families and our livelihoods and walked for nine days to get here in time to receive Benazir,'' said Mohammed Rana, a 23-year-old store owner who traveled in a group of 70 party supporters from the town of Umerkot in the southern province of Sindh. ``It doesn't matter if our families starve or we lose business. What matters is that Benazir needs us and we're here.''

Only months ago, Bhutto was the most popular Pakistani politician, even in exile, according to polls. The backroom negotiations with Musharraf -- to extend his presidency and allow her to return and run for office -- have dented her popularity, as has U.S. support for the power-sharing arrangement.

``Public opinion is going against her for entering a deal with a military dictator and for towing the American line,'' said Khalid Mahmud, a research analyst at Institute of Regional Studies in Islamabad. That's ``seen as a very unpopular gesture in Pakistan by the religious people and average Pakistanis.''

Poll Respondents

In a poll released Oct. 11 by the Washington-based International Republican Institute, 28 percent of respondents said Bhutto was the leader who could best handle the problems facing Pakistan, down from 32 percent in a June survey, and below the 36 percent approval for former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif.

In the institute's June survey, Bhutto was at the top of the list with 32 percent support, and Sharif was below her and Musharraf.

Unlike Bhutto, Sharif has not dealt with Musharraf, who overthrew his government in 1999 and then charged him with corruption and treason before allowing him to go into exile in 2000. When Sharif attempted to return to Pakistan Sept. 10 to block Musharraf's presidential re-election bid, he was held by police at Islamabad's airport and deported to Saudi Arabia, where he has lived for seven years.

On her return, Bhutto also has to contend with threats to her life. A pro-Taliban militant leader from Pakistan's tribal region earlier this month threatened to kill Bhutto in a suicide attack.

Security Forces

Musharraf is deploying thousands of security forces to guard her on her return, fearing he would be blamed for any assassination attempt on her life.

Over 2,500 troops have been assigned to manage security at the airport, said Fazl Mahmood, spokesman for the Pakistan Rangers, the nation's paramilitary force. The city's 12,000 personnel have also been placed on ``high alert'' and some have been posted at hospitals in the event of violence, he said.

Another 2,000 airport security personnel have also been assigned to Bhutto's security team, GEO television reported yesterday. A total of 20,000 police officers have been deployed in the city, The Nation newspaper reported.

Schools and colleges in Karachi remained closed today and most shops and businesses did not open this morning.

Musharraf's Re-election

As part of the deal allowing her return, Bhutto did not object to Musharraf being re-elected Oct. 6 by the current parliament and state legislatures, a vote boycotted by the opposition, and which is being reviewed by the Supreme Court for its legality. Bhutto is hoping that the laws will be changed to allow her to run for a third term as prime minister in parliamentary elections due by Jan. 15. Musharraf has agreed to give up control of the army by Nov. 15 as part of the deal.

On Oct. 5, the government introduced a law withdrawing corruption charges against Bhutto as part of a national reconciliation plan. Pakistan's Supreme Court, the highest appeals court, ruled Oct. 12 that a panel of judges will make a final decision on whether the law was discriminatory.

Bhutto's supporters crowded the aisles, clapped and chanted in Urdu ``long live Benazir'' and ``Benazir for prime minister'' on board Emirates Flight 30 overnight from London to Dubai, forcing the flight crew to repeatedly demand a halt to the impromptu rally as confused passengers tried to sleep.

After landing in Karachi today, Bhutto is scheduled to address a news conference and then lead a caravan to the mausoleum of the founder of Pakistan, Mohammed Ali Jinnah.

She will later travel to her ancestral village of Naudero, outside the city of Larkana in Sindh province, where her party's politi

India ranked 94th in global battle against hunger

2007-10-14T22:54:00.000-07:00

S Rajagopalan \| Washington
India's economy may be booming and the Sensex may be on fire every now and then, but winning the battle against hunger is still a long way off. The country has just been ranked 94th -- way behind its peer, China (47th slot) -- in eradication of hunger.

The Global Hunger Index 2007, compiled by the Washington-based International Food Policy Research Institute, notes India has made considerable progress since 1990, improving its score from 33.73 to 25.03, while China has bettered its tally from 12.77 to 8.37.

In the GHI scheme of things, higher scores indicate greater hunger. So, a lower score reflects that a country is better-placed. GHI scores above 10 are regarded as "serious", above 20 are considered "alarming" and above 30 are deemed to be "extremely alarming".

According to the report, Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia remain the hunger hot spots. The South Asian nations of India, Bangladesh, Pakistan and Nepal may have a higher proportion of the population meeting their calorie requirements and a lower child mortality rate than Sub-Saharan Africa, but South Asia is said to have the highest child malnutrition.

"More than half of all children with low birth weight are born in South Asia," the report says adding: "Forty per cent of the world's underweight children under five live in India alone."

In contrast to the Sub-Saharan Africa, where the GHI score dropped only marginally, there has been greater progress in South Asia. But it is the Latin America and Caribbean region and the East Asia and Pacific region are on track with regard to reducing their GHI levels, thanks to their progress in decreasing under-nourishment among the population and child mortality.

The report asserts that South Asia lags behind in its target of halving the proportion of people suffering from calorie deficiency "partly because of too little progress in India, which is home to three-quarters of South Asia's population."

The report also highlights the continuing low status of women in the South Asian region. "In some parts of India, for instance, male family members eat first and women make do with the leftovers," it says adding: "Children of undernourished and anaemic mothers have a higher risk of being born underweight."

The grim projections notwithstanding, IFPRI researcher Doris Wiesmann, who developed the Global Hunger Index, still speaks of "good news" as "every region of the world is experiencing some progress."

Maoists protest amid Nepal peace process deadlock

2007-10-11T23:34:00.000-07:00

Around 5,000 flag-waving Maoist supporters have marched and chanted anti-monarchy slogans near Nepal's Parliament, as the main parties and the rebels tried to revive a deadlocked peace process.

The factions remained at odds as a special session of Parliament aimed at paving the way towards the country's new political future got under way.

The ex-rebels want Parliament to debate their demands for an immediate abolition of the Himalayan nation's monarchy, as well as a new voting system.

"We are confident that our proposals will be passed," Maoist spokesman Krishna Bahadur Mahara told AFP.

But Arjun Narsingh KC, a leader from Nepal's largest party, the Nepali Congress, said there was no consensus.

"The Nepali Congress party has decided to vote against the Maoists' motions as their demands do not comply with the interim constitution and the peace accord," he said.

The Nepali Congress now supports a republican agenda but wants the future of King Gyanendra to be decided by a popular vote.

The UN's top official in Nepal said on Wednesday that the failure of both the Maoists and the country's mainstream parties to implement agreements on key issues in last November's peace deal had led to the current political crisis.

Weaknesses include the Maoists continuing to use violence and intimidation, and the Government failing to assist former rebels currently restricted to UN-supervised camps.

As part of the accord, the UN was invited to monitor former guerrillas confined to camps around the country, and assist in polls on the country's political future that have twice been cancelled.

Despite storming out of an interim government last month, the Maoists still have 73 lawmakers in the 330-seat Parliament. The Nepali Congress has 132 seats.

2007-10-07T00:02:00.000-07:00

Clinton extending her lead

Enlarge Photo

NEW YORK - Hillary Rodham Clinton has strengthened her position as the front-runner for the Democratic presidential nomination. But her strong showing nationally belies a much closer race in Iowa, where she is in a tight three-way contest with Barack Obama and John Edwards.

Indian Maoists not happy with Nepali comrades

2007-10-04T23:38:00.000-07:00

AS THE Maoists in Nepal struggle to make a difficult choice on whether to participate in the elections for the constituent assembly due to be held in November, they have come under fire from the Indian Maoists for "losing all revolutionary gains" and encouraging "Indian ruling class interference" in their country.
The banned umbrella organisation of Maoists in India, the Communist Party of India (Maoist), has raised questions on the eagerness shown by the Nepalese Maoists to join G.P. Koirala's interim government in 2006, which they finally quit last month, classified documents of the Maoists show.
"Overall, the decision of the CPN (Maoist) to dissolve the revolutionary people's governments in the countryside and to merge the People's Liberation Army (PLA) with the reactionary army will unfold an irreversible process of losing all the revolutionary gains achieved till now", the CPI (Maoist) spokesman, Azad said, in an internal circular for the party cadres.
The CPI (Maoist) has asked its Nepalese big brothers to reconsider their recent decisions and honour the sacrifices of more than 10,000 martyrs.
"We would seriously request the CPN (Maoist) and its leadership to reconsider some of its recent positions and learn from the history of past mistakes. The Nepalese party and people have a great history of struggle and sacrifice. Over 10,000 have lost their lives in the course of the present people's war", the circular said.
The Indian Maoists have accused the top Nepalese leadership, Prachanda and Baburam Bhattarai of being over-enthusiastic to become a part of the mainstream political process.
"The decision of the CPN (Maoist) to participate in the government along with the reactionary parties, and to become actors in the ensuing game of parliamentary elections following the elections to the constituent assembly has come as a breather for the ruling class parties in Nepal and the parliamentary system of India", the CPI (Maoist) spokesman said.
The CPI (Maoist) has strongly criticised Prachanda for advocating a change in the outlook of Indian Maoists and accepting help from the mainstream left leadership in India.
"It is really a matter of grave concern that comrade Prachanda, instead of demanding the expansionist Indian ruling classes to stop all interference and meddling in Nepal's internal affairs, only talked of how their tactics would bring about a change in the outlook of the Maoists in India. Needless to say, these remarks will not only be deeply resented by the revolutionary masses of our country", Azad said.
The banned Maoist organisation has also trained its guns on India's political parties, especially the mainstream Left, accusing it of furthering a retrograde agenda.
"No wonder, the various ruling class parties and the so-called Left parties in India were elated at the change of stance by the CPN (Maoist) led by comrade Prachanda. They naturally hailed the line taken by the CPN (Maoist) and called upon the Maoists in India to realize the futility of armed struggle and to follow the Maoists of Nepal by participating in the parliamentary pig-sty in India".

Is not this for longivity of Monarchy in Nepal?

2007-10-04T23:22:00.000-07:00

Nepal Postpones Nov. 22 Election Over Rebel Demand for Republic
By Ed Johnson
Oct. 5 (Bloomberg) -- Nepal's political parties postponed the Nov. 22 election after failing to agree on rebel demands to immediately declare a republic and change the voting system.
Leaders of the seven main parties decided to suspend the ballot indefinitely following talks in the capital, Kathmandu, today, Nepalnews.com reported, citing unidentified officials.
The Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist), which fought for 10 years to overthrow the monarchy, is demanding a republic be declared immediately and that a new parliament be chosen by proportional representation.
The election was scheduled to be held under a November 2006 peace agreement, which saw the Maoists end their armed struggle, return 30,000 fighters to camps under United Nations supervision and join the interim government. The rebel party quit the Cabinet last month and threatened street protests after the other parties refused to comply with its demands.
The election is for a National Assembly that will write a new constitution for the Himalayan kingdom and decide the fate of King Gyanendra's dynasty.
``The seven party leaders have agreed to postpone the constituent assembly elections for an indefinite period,'' Agence France-Presse cited Peace and Reconstruction Minister Ram Chandra Poudel as saying in Kathmandu today.
The Maoists, who follow the ideology of China's former leader Mao Zedong, say a republic must be declared immediately because supporters of the monarchy could undermine the election.
Popular Legitimacy
Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala says the new parliament must vote on the issue for the change to have popular legitimacy.
Gyanendra became king in 2001 after his brother, King Birendra, and most family members were shot dead in a domestic dispute. He dismissed the government in February 2005 for failing to end the Maoist insurgency and ruled as an autocratic monarch for 14 months.
Gyanendra was forced to restore parliament in April 2006 in the face of mass demonstrations and has since been stripped of much of his power. He is no longer head of the army and his income and assets are taxable under a resolution passed unanimously by lawmakers in May 2006 that turned Nepal, once the world's only Hindu kingdom, into a secular state.
Located between India and China, Nepal is one of the poorest countries in the world, where about 40 percent of the population lives below the poverty line.
The country is home to Mount Everest, the world's tallest peak, which attracts climbers from around the globe. More than 13,000 people were killed in the civil war, which damaged the tourism-dependent economy.

A must read article

2007-10-01T01:36:00.000-07:00

Nepal's King faces the sack

Embattled King Gyanendra of Nepal

It took more than two centuries for his ancestors to build up the royal firm, but King Gyanendra of Nepal has just about wrecked the business in seven disastrous years.

He came to the throne in 2001 after his brother, King Birendra, and most of his family were massacred by Crown Prince Dipendra, who got high on drugs and alcohol and went on a shooting spree around the palace.

It was the shocking resolution to a dinner party feud over whether the Prince could marry an Indian girl.

In the years since, the accidental King Gyanendra has turned an otherwise popular institution into political poison.

Nepal's largest political party has abandoned its traditional support for the monarchy.

That followed a decision by former Maoist rebels to quit the interim government to push for immediate abolition.

The issue is set to be decided by MPs elected after a poll in November.

But the Maoists say they are in a hurry because elements of the Army are planning a coup to save the King.

The United Nations (UN) is playing a mediating role in Nepal.

Maoists have put their troops and guns in camps under UN supervision.

The Army has done likewise.

Ian Martin heads the UN mission.

"I can't say what the Maoists's real motives are," he said.

"But certainly they continue to maintain that these demands must be met, and are now in negotiation with the Prime Minister and other parties following the very important meeting of the Nepali Congress, which has committed it - for the first time - to a Republican platform."

Mr Martin says problems may be averted by pulling together the current assembly and taking a vote prior to November to abolish the monarchy.

"There is discussion of a possible compromise along the lines of a resolution that is a firm statement of intent in the interim legislature, still subject to final decision by the constituent assembly."

Death toll in Nepal rioting gets to 28

2007-09-20T22:14:00.000-07:00

Rioting in Nepal has left 28 killed.The death toll in the violence during four days of rioting in south-western Nepal reaches to 28 with the discovery of at least 15 more bodies. The 15 bodies were found in searches around Bisampur village Wednesday and Thursday morning, said police in the Kapilvastu district, about 200 kilometers south-west of Kathmandu.

Eight of the bodies were charred beyond recognition, they added. Hundreds of houses and vehicles were destroyed when angry mobs rampaged through the hill districts in protests that followed the shooting of politician Mohid Khan on Sunday.

The rioting also spread to neighboring towns and villages. Khan was the leader of an anti-Maoist vigilante group during Nepal's 10-year civil war between the former rebels and the government.

He was killed by unidentified gunman at his home. Local people have accused the Maoists of carrying out Khan's killing, a charge denied by the former rebels who signed a peace agreement with the government last year after a decade long conflict. They instead charged Khan with continuing anti-Maoist activities despite the retaliatory committee being disbanded.

At least 100 people have been killed in Nepal's southern Terai region since the start of the year in ethnic violence, clouding a peace deal reached late last year between the government and former rebel Maoists.

Leaders surprised by Maoist decision to quit govt

2007-09-18T22:15:00.000-07:00

Top leaders of the mainstream political parties have expressed dismay over the Maoists announcement to leave the government. They are also alarmed at the Maoists vowing to disrupt the upcoming Constituent Assembly election calling it a mere ‘sham’.

Nepali Congress (NC) general secretary and Peace and Reconstruction Minister Ram Chandra Poudel said that although there was much possibility of ending monarchy once and for all without spilling any blood, the sudden decision of the Maoist to quit the government has given a new lease of life to it.

“To see the Maoists quitting the government and soon after that vowing to disrupt the CA polls showed it was a preplanned move to escape the polls,” Poudel told Kantipur Daily Tuesday evening, “It is ridiculous that a party that raised the demand for CA polls for a decade wanted to quit it at the final stage.”

“They didn’t want the crucial decision of declaring the country a republic to be made through first meeting of the constituent assembly,” Poudel said.

CPN-UML standing committee member Ishwor Pokharel said that the Maoists have left the government at a time when even Nepali Congress, a party which was till some time seen in favour of some form of monarchy, has reached the decision to opt for federal republicanism and has already expressed it commitment to endorse it though its Mahasamiti. “This is a political betrayal,” he said.

Another CPN-UML leader Jhala Nath Khanal said that it was unfortunate to see the Maoists sticking to their stance as it has only prolonged the life of monarchy in Nepal. “The ultra-leftist line almost always serve the interest of the ultra right,” he said, adding, “The decision of the Maoists has come just two months ahead of the end of monarchy through a legitimate way.”

Similarly, Nepal Workers’ and Peasants’ Party (NWPP) chairman Narayanman Bijukche said that Maoist announcement to quit the government must have come because of the internal wrangling between the constituents of the coalition government.

“I have learnt that this decision of the Maoist came after the four main constituents of the eight party alliance couldn’t reach to an agreement of sharing 60 seats of the Constituent Assembly between themselves,” he said.

What is peace?

2007-09-18T00:25:00.000-07:00

Peace is freedom from war or hostility. Peace also implies a full stomach, a roof to sleep under, educational opportunities, access to medicine, and hope for the future.
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This blog is dedicated to those who have moved our society towards the broader view of peace, fighting war, injustice, and poverty.

Many peace organizations fit the true definition of a movement, changing history, politics, and literature. Others may not have had such a global impact, but deserve acknowledgment for their struggle to bring peace to some small corner of the world.

Prachanda suggests shifting polls

2007-08-24T13:18:00.000-07:00

Maoist Chairman Prachanda Friday proposed to postpone the Constituent Assembly elections to Baisakh (mid-April to mid-May). The Maoist Chairman said it would make no difference if the polls are held in mid-April-mid-May.

Addressing an interaction programme organised by the CPN-M in Kathmandu, Prachanda said instead of forcing the elections as in the days of the Panchayati regime, his party would have no objection if the polls are postponed to mid-April.

“We cannot and we should not tolerate any elections that resemble the Panchayati regime polls,” said Prachanda. “To hold the CA polls in a true sense, there should be a round-table conference and we have always stressed on that.”

Prachanda said that it was a bit inconvenient on the part of his party to reach out to the people asking for votes when the conflict victims are yet to get compensation and the state of the ‘disappeared’ is yet to be made public.

The Maoist Chairman said that his party made a mistake by signing agreements with the seven parties in a hurry that too without the people’s mandate just after signing of the 12-party agreement.

“We, indeed, feel like we have been back stabbed. We signed the agreements anticipating that the CA polls would immediately happen when the entire population of the country was in favor of a republican set up,” said Prachanda.

However, he also realized that his party is not popular at this moment. If elections are being postponed due to unpopularity of a certain party, it is certain CA polls will never happen.

Prachanda said, “Now when it is said that we are against the polls, it hurts.” Political pundits argue "Will postponement of CA polls not hurt people?"

Next President Hillary Clinton

2007-07-15T10:43:00.000-07:00

Democratic presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton greets supporters during a rally at the University of Iowa. Democratic hopefuls have opened a fundraising gap of tens of millions of dollars over Republicans, with the 2008 race on course to become the first billion dollar election

Kiwis find pay not worth risk

2007-07-13T17:07:00.000-07:00

Former New Zealand soldiers are leaving Iraq as pay and conditions worsen, a security expert says.

Darryl de Thierry, 34, was killed on Tuesday, just days after returning to Iraq, when his armoured vehicle ran over an explosive device.

Four New Zealanders have now been killed in Iraq – de Thierry, Teina Ngamata and Steve Gilchrist, who worked for British security contractor ArmorGroup, and engineer John Robert Tyrrell, who was working for an Iraqi company.

Chris Lawton, of Auckland's C4 Group, which has trained security contractors and bodyguards for work in Iraq, said New Zealanders were increasingly leaving Iraq because both job opportunities and wages were falling while the work became more dangerous.

"A lot of guys have left because for that money it's just not worth hanging around in Iraq and they can make the same money elsewhere," he said.

"I don't know many guys over there now because most of them are now working in less risky countries like Nigeria and Afghanistan."

The standard rate for a "shooter" – a gun-carrying contractor – was now 170 ($NZ438) a day, down from a high of 340 a day.

Lawton said security companies were now using more personnel from countries like Nepal and the Philippines.

"Ex-Gurkhas will work a lot cheaper than Kiwis or Aussies," he said.

"The team leaders are still from countries like Australia or New Zealand ..."

He estimated between 100 and 500 Kiwis were still in Iraq.

Foreign Affairs Ministry spokeswoman Helen Tunnah said it was believed there were several hundred New Zealanders in Iraq. Most were employed by ArmorGroup, with New Zealanders holding key positions.

Jon Knight, ArmorGroup regional director for the Middle East and Iraq operations, spent 22 years in the New Zealand Army, including 14 years in command and operational appointments within the 1st New Zealand SAS Group, concluding as its commanding officer.

ArmorGroup is one of the largest private contractors in Iraq, with about 1200 protection officers. It also provides security for the British foreign office and the department of international development, and helps with the Iraqi police mentoring programme in Basra.

De Thierry's body will be brought back to Te Aroha in Waikato for a tangi.

Prince Harry joins Gurkha Rifles

2007-07-09T10:01:00.000-07:00

British Royal Prince Harry is getting set for a stint with one of the most formidable units in the country's Army - the Gurkhas.
The 22-year old is currently an officer at the Blues and Royals, but will be training with the 3rd Battalion, Royal Gurkha Rifles for a short stint to learn their ways.
The exercise is scheduled to last four days, and a source reveals that he will be taking part in every aspect of it.
"To all intents and purposes he will be a Gurkha," the Sun quoted the source, as saying.
After the exercise, Harry will be presented with an honorary kukri - the curved knife that the Gurkhas soldiers use.
"Harry will be told that when the kukri leaves its sheath it can never be returned without blood being drawn, which is a popular saying in Nepal" another source added.
The Gurkhas from Nepal have been recruited since the early 1800s when they were first brought in as allies to British forces in India.
Since then they have built up a formidable reputation.
During World War II, they left Japanese forces terrified after reports circulated that they crept in among sleeping Japanese to slit the throats of every man but one - leaving him to wake and spread panic.

2007-07-08T14:35:00.001-07:00

Lal Masjid siege continues

Nirupama Subramanian

Army officer killed, commando injured while blasting a hole in the mosque wall

— PHOTO: AFP

A Pakistani soldier keeps vigil with a truck-mounted machine gun in front of the besieged Red Mosque during a curfew in Islamabad on Sunday.

ISLAMABAD: On its sixth day, the showdown at Lal Masjid claimed the life of an Army officer and wounded another, but an end to the stand-off was not in sight with the cleric and the militants holed up inside the mosque remaining defiant and the Government still unwilling to carry out an all-out strike against them.

Deputy Information Minister Tariq Azeem said the Government was dealing with a “hostage situation” in which women, children and men were being held by cleric Abdul Rashid Ghazi against their will in the Lal Masjid and adjoining Jamia Hafsa seminary.

Local television channels said Government interceptions of phone calls to and from the mosque indicated that some of the militants inside belonged to two banned groups, Jaish-e-Mohammed and Harkat-ul-Jihad-e-Islam.

Lt. Col. Haroon Islam, a commando of the Special Service Group was killed, and another commando Maj. Tariq wounded during an operation by the security forces early on Sunday to blast a hole in the mosque’s wall to allow people inside a chance to escape, military spokesman Maj. Gen. Waheed Arshad said.

Reports said some parts of the wall were dynamited and brought down. During the day, the Government released 152 boys who surrendered earlier this week and were sent to Adiala prison in Rawalpindi for questioning.

Saturday’s “surrender or die” declaration of President Pervez Musharraf created anticipation that the end game of this showdown was imminent, but significantly, he set no deadline and the Government is still hoping to resolve this without striking inside the mosque.

Information Minister Muhammed Ali Durrani said the Government could launch and finish an operation in Lal Masjid mosque “under an hour” if it wanted but was holding back because of the presence of up to 400 women and children inside the Jamia Hafsa seminary.

Religious Affairs Minister Eijaz-ul-Haq said there was danger that the militants would start killing the women and children if an operation was launched. He said there would be no amnesty for “terrorists”.

On Sunday, a lone helicopter hovered overhead the Lal Masjid for a few minutes but there was no gunfire or explosions that rocked the mosque’s neighbourhood since Wednesday. The Government relaxed the curfew in the residential sector twice.

Mr. Ghazi, the cleric who leads the militant students, told a television channel that he would come out of the mosque if the Government promised a “judicial enquiry” by the Supreme Court and an open trial.

It was not clear what he wanted investigated by the court and who would be on trial. He also said 300 people had died inside the mosque in the firing by security forces.

But officials said there was no reliable information available about the casualties inside the mosque.

Mr. Ghazi told journalists by telephone earlier that he and those with him could continue living inside for at least another month on the rations inside the mosque.

As the showdown drags on, the Government is coming under pressure not to carry out its ultimatum but negotiate with the militants inside, and to consider giving amnesty to Mr. Ghazi.

A delegation of ulema met the ruling party president Chaudhary Shujaat Hussain on Sunday afternoon and urged the Government to declare a “ceasefire” and begin talks with Mr. Ghazi. Another cleric asked the Government to declare an amnesty.

But Mr. Azeem said the Government “does not have any more negotiations to offer” Mr. Ghazi, and that he must surrender and hand over the women, children and injured to the security forces.

The Minister said the Government was prepared to wait. “But like anywhere else in the world, the time will come, if they do not give themselves up before that, for the Government to take action. If an operation is necessary to establish the writ of the Government, we will do it, and the mosque leaders will have to take the responsibility for the consequences,” he said.

GOP Defection?

2007-07-07T11:39:00.000-07:00

http://sayanythingblog.com/index.php

Are Senator Sen. Pete Domenici’s recent statements about the war in Iraq a “defection” from the President’s position? That’s how CBS is casting it:

(CBS/AP) In another setback to President Bush’s increasingly unpopular war strategy, Republican Party stalwart Sen. Pete Domenici said he wanted to see an end to combat operations and U.S. troops heading home from Iraq by spring

The longtime New Mexico senator is the latest of several party loyalists and former war supporters to abandon Mr. Bush on Iraq in the past 10 days. They have urged a change sooner rather than later and further isolated the Republican president in his attempt to defend the unpopular war

Last week, Sens. Richard Lugar, an Indiana Republican, and George Voinovich, a Republican from Ohio, said the U.S. should significantly reduce its military presence in Iraq while bolstering diplomatic efforts. Republican Sen. John Warner, of Virginia, is expected to propose a new approach this month.

Sounds gloomy, except here is what Domenici actually had to say:

“I do not support an immediate withdrawal from Iraq or a reduction in funding for our troops,” Domenici said. “But I do support a new strategy that will move our troops out of combat operations and on the path to coming home.”

Move our troops out of combat, put them on the path to coming home. Is there anyone in this country that doesn’t want that?

The media is quick to cast this as Republicans abandoning Bush on Iraq, and while these guys may be looking to assert themselves a bit more on Iraq policy it should be noted that they’re still trying to win the war. Not give up and bring our troops home with their tails between their legs.

Nepal Muslims demand seats in national election

2007-06-30T11:54:00.000-07:00

A leading Muslim group in Nepal said on Saturday it would organise street protests if the government does not meet its demand to set aside seats for its community in November elections.

The elections will elect a constituent assembly to prepare a new constitution and decide the fate of the monarchy in the majority-Hindu nation.

Mohammed Nizamuddin, president of the Muslim group Awam Sahara Nepal, said Muslims were left out.

"If the government does not address our demand we'll be forced to come to the street and protest for it," Nizamuddin told Reuters.

Nepal's interim parliament, which includes former Maoist rebels, approved a law in June earmarking seats in the assembly for ethnic Madhesis from the southern plains and other indigenous groups that have been protesting for more seats in the polls.

The election, the first national vote in more than eight years, will cap a peace process with the Maoists ending a decade-long civil war which killed more than 13,000 people.

Muslims comprise about 4 percent of the population.

Ijaharul Hak Mikrani, president of another Muslim group, the Intellectual Muslim Association of Nepal, demanded at least 50 seats for the Muslims in the 497-member assembly.

Gurkha women invited to break tradition and serve in British army

2007-06-26T11:15:00.000-07:00

More than 1 500 Nepali women have signed up with private firms to train for a possible career with the British army after it allowed them to join the Brigade of Gurkhas for the first time in nearly two centuries.

Britain is studying how Nepali women could be recruited for its Gurkha brigade. Authorities took out a newspaper advertisement this month asking women to give "notification of interest" to serve in the army.

Gurkha soldiers, a tribe from Nepal's Himalayan foothills known for their fierce combat abilities, have been serving in the British army since 1815. But until now, only men have been allowed to join.

"There is great interest among women about the recruitment and this will only go up," said Prem Prakash Nemwang, a former Gurkha who runs a course in Dharan, a few hours drive east of Kathmandu.

British officials told reporters that practical issues such as recruitment and selection standards needed to be settled and actual recruitment could take time.

It was not clear how many Nepali women would be recruited.

"At the moment it is too soon to say when we may be employing our first Nepalese woman in the British army, but it is unlikely to be within the next two years," the British army said last week.

Aspirants said the offer was worth trying.

"I know it is very good for my career," said Bunita Gurung (19), taking a course in the resort town of Pokhara in west Nepal. "I want to be a soldier in the British army."

Gurung, a management student, was inspired to look for a career in the British army by her father, who is a former soldier.

Twenty-year-old undergraduate Sirjana Rana said she would barely get $150 (R1 070) a month in Nepal after completing her studies. But if she joined the British army now her wages could be 10 times higher, Rana said.

Britain, which recruits 230 Gurkha men every year, has not said how many women it plans to take.

Mountainous Nepal, tucked between China and India, is one of the world's 10 poorest countries. A decade-long Maoist insurgency and years of political turmoil wrecked industries and businesses.

Prehistoric penguins were 5 feet tall

2007-06-25T14:11:00.000-07:00

RALEIGH, N.C., June 25 (UPI) --

Paleontologists have found the fossils of two previously unknown penguin species in Peru that grew to about 5 feet in height.

North Carolina State University Assistant Professor Julia Clarke and her Peruvian and Argentine collaborators have shown the two species reached equatorial regions tens of millions of years earlier than expected and during a period when the Earth was much warmer than it is now.

The fossils were discovered by Peruvian paleontologists in 2005.
The first of the species, Icadyptes salasi, stood 5 feet tall and lived about 36 million years ago. The second species, Perudyptes devriesi, lived about 42 million years ago, and was approximately the same size as a living King Penguin -- up to 3 feet in height. Both of the species lived on the southern coast of Peru.

Clark said the penguin fossils are among the most complete yet recovered and call into question hypotheses about the timing and pattern of penguin evolution and expansion.

The research appears online in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Devotees flock to worship 'miracle' trees in Nepal

2007-06-24T10:00:00.000-07:00

Kathmandu, June 24 (IANS) After an idol that 'sweats' and a stone that 'grows', it is the turn of 'miracle' trees in western Nepal to be worshipped by flocking devotees.
Thousands of ardent believers have been thronging Vyas town in Tanahun district in western Nepal to marvel at and worship three trees that are said to be gushing water, according to the local media.
The phenomenon is said to have begun in May after a woman worshipped the three trees. When news of the miracle spread, people started coming from the capital as well as southern districts to offer prayers before the three trees.
However, to the chagrin of the locals, last month, a group of Buddhist lamas and shamans went to the spot and did a counter-worship that reportedly resulted in the trees becoming normal again.
Things reportedly changed dramatically Saturday when a local woman offered worship to counter the lamas' magic and the trees began spouting water again.
Nepal, one of the poorest countries in the world with a low literacy rate and virtually no healthcare facilities in the remote villages, is also one of the strongest believers in magic and miracles.
About two years ago, a Nepali teen hit the headlines for reportedly sitting in meditation without drinking water or taking food for several months.
Since then, there have been other prodigies like a school girl said to be emitting glass from her head, and a prophet believed to cure illnesses by touching sufferers with a trident, whose prophecies about Doomsday smiting Nepal last week proved to be false.
Mass hysteria is one of the most common maladies stalking classrooms with hundreds of students from different schools falling unconscious and displaying hysterical behaviour.
Nepal, that has the largest number of religious festivals in the world and public holidays, still enjoys a state holiday during eclipses.
Some of the religious beliefs are still taken in earnest by the new government though it has on board the Maoist guerrillas, who do not believe in religion.
A stone idol in northern Dolakha temple is believed to sweat when a crisis is at hand. It is believed to have sweated during earthquakes in the past and the massacre of the royal family in 2001.
When the idol of Bhimsen 'sweats', traditionally, priests wipe off the holy water with cotton wool and send the balls to the appropriate authorities.
Earlier, they were sent to the palace, whose royal residents rank among the most superstitious, never taking any important decision without consulting astrologers.
But this year, with King Gyanendra in disgrace for trying to seize absolute power, the cotton wool was sent to Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala, to do the needful, which included offering worship for atonement.

US to Send Some at Gitmo to Afghanistan

2007-06-22T13:54:00.000-07:00

Brennan Linsley

US troopers walk on a road as the sun rises over the razor-wired detention compound at Guantanamo Bay U.S. Naval Base, Cuba, in this Dec. 7, 2006 file photo, reviewed by a U.S. Dept of Defense official. The Bush administration is nearing a decision to close the Guantanamo Bay detainee facility and move its terror suspects to military prisons elsewhere, The Associated Press learned Thursday June 21, 2007. (AP Photo/Brennan Llinsley)

WASHINGTON - The U.S. is helping expand a prison in Afghanistan to take some detainees from Guantanamo Bay, while administration officials argue about whether to bring the most dangerous to the U.S. when the Cuban facility shuts down.

President Bush has made closing the prison in Cuba a priority, though the Afghan site is not meant to be a substitute, the White House said Friday.

"Everybody is working toward the goal to meet what the president has asked them to do, which is to do it as soon as possible," Deputy press secretary Dana Perino told reporters.

She said Bush's top aides are in active discussions about closing Guantanamo. Senior officials, meanwhile, have told The Associated Press a consensus is building on how to do it, including sending some high-value suspects to military facilities in the U.S. where they could be prosecuted.

Officials say the administration is split, with Vice President Dick Cheney's office and the Justice Department vehemently opposed to any proposal that would bring detainees to U.S. soil, where they would be afforded more legal rights and might pose a threat.

Pressure to close Guantanamo has been mounting in recent months, with the administration suffering a series of legal setbacks and some in Congress threatening to mandate a shutdown.

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Defense Secretary Robert Gates, among others, are in favor of the proposal to bring some detainees to the U.S., provided proper safeguards are in place, officials say. And Perino made clear that Bush is determined to see Guantanamo Bay shut down.

"America does not have any intention of being the world's jailer," she said, noting that the United States has announced plans to release about 80 of the some 375 detainees remaining in Guantanamo and hopes to transfer several dozen Afghans back to Afghanistan in the near future.

Washington is helping the Afghan government build a high-security wing at Pul-e-Charki prison complex just outside Kabul. The wing has 330 cells and can hold up to 660 people, including 65 Afghans held at Guantanamo Bay, according to Afghan officials.

But Gen. Mohammad Zahir Azimi, the chief spokesman for Afghanistan's Defense Ministry, said none of those held at Guantanamo had been transferred to Afghanistan so far despite statements by U.S. officials that they would be sent back by the end of April 2007.

The Guantanamo Bay prison, set up in 2002 to house terror suspects captured in military operations, mostly in Afghanistan, has been a flash point for criticism of the Bush administration at home and abroad.

Human rights advocates and foreign leaders have repeatedly called for its shutdown, and the prison is regarded by critics as proof of U.S. double standards on fundamental freedoms in the war on terrorism.

Some of the detainees have come from countries that are U.S. allies, including Britain, Saudi Arabia and Australia. Each of those governments raised complaints about the conditions or duration of detentions, or about the possibility that detainees might face death sentences.

The Bush administration has transferred 405 detainees out of Guantanamo to more than two dozen countries. Most were later released by their home countries. Of the 375 who remain, the U.S. military says it wants to prosecute 60 to 80 and has cleared for transfer another 80.

The military says the rest, about 200, are either too dangerous to release or still have intelligence value.

A proposal gaining traction among Bush's top national security advisers would have some of the most dangerous suspects at Guantanamo transferred to one or more Defense Department facilities, including the maximum-security prison at Fort Leavenworth, Kan., and a Navy brig in South Carolina.

Perino declined to comment on the Fort Leavenworth option, which has been raised by lawmakers.

A scheduled high-level Friday meeting on the matter was canceled after AP reported it was scheduled. Perino said it had been determined late Thursday that the gathering "wasn't necessary at this time."

She added: "That doesn't mean that people don't continue to work on ... getting that facility closed. There are people who their sole job, their sole responsibility is working to make sure that that facility is closed."

Since it first began bringing detainees from the war on terror to Guantanamo, the U.S. has made the detention center increasingly resemble a modern prison complex with an operating budget of $125.3 million per year, its former commander told Congress earlier this year.

By late April 2002, the military had moved the detainees out of the notorious temporary cage-like cells that had been built in the 1990s when some 40,000 migrants from Haiti and Cuba were held at the Navy base. They were moved to a complex of cells with steel-mesh walls known collectively as Camp Delta.

In 2004, the U.S. opened Camp 5, a modern concrete-and-steel building, modeled after a jail in Indiana, with solid-wall cells for "high-value" detainees, built at a cost of about $16 million.

The newest facility, Camp 6, was modeled on the highest-security prisons in the United States. The 178-cell prison was built for $37 million by KBR, a subsidiary of Houston-based Halliburton Co., and opened in December.

Perino said six detainees had been transferred out of Guantanamo Bay on Friday, four to Yemen and two to Tunisia, as the Pentagon announced that one more person, an Afghan terror suspect, had been moved into the facility.

Rice is working with her counterparts around the world to try to repatriate detainees to their home countries, make sure they are held safely and treated humanely and that they are not allowed to perpetrate acts of terrorism, officials said.

Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman said Gates supports closing the facility.

"I think that's the goal of everybody in the administration and probably most Americans , that we would rather not have to have a place like Guantanamo," he said. "But the fact remains that there are dangerous people out there that are being picked up on the battlefield that have vowed to return to the fight if released and individuals that have committed war crimes and should be held accountable for their actions."

,,,,

Associated Press writers Ben Fox in San Juan, Puerto Rico; Fisnik Abrashi in Kabul, Afghanistan, and Anne Gearan, Deb Riechmann and Pauline Jelinek in Washington contributed to this report.

YouTube Going Mobile For iPhone

2007-06-20T12:59:00.000-07:00

Popular video sharing site, YouTube, has launched a new portal to make some of its content viewable on a wide variety of mobile phones and smartphones. It is also in the processes of re-formatting its entire catalog for viewing on the iPhone.

Fantistic!!! People will love it

Pakistan joins protest against Rushdie's knighthood

2007-06-18T11:26:00.000-07:00

Pakistani lawmakers passed a government-backed resolution Monday demanding Britain withdraw the knighthood awarded to author Salman Rushdie, condemning the honour as an insult to the religious sentiments of Muslims.
In the eastern city of Multan, hardline Muslim students burned effigies of Queen Elizabeth II and Rushdie. About 100 students carrying banners condemning the author also chanted, "Kill Him! Kill Him!"
On Saturday, Britain announced the knighthood for the author of The Satanic Verses in an honours list timed for the official celebration of the queen's 81st birthday.
Lawmakers in Pakistan's lower house of parliament on Monday passed a resolution proposed by Minister for Parliamentary Affairs Sher Afgan Khan Niazi, who branded Rushdie — who was born in India into a Muslim family — a "blasphemer."
"The 'sir' title from Britain for blasphemer Salman Rushdie has hurt the sentiments of the Muslims across the world. Every religion should be respected. I demand the British government immediately withdraw the title as it is creating religious hatred," Niazi told the National Assembly.
Lawmakers voted unanimously for the resolution although one opposition member, Khwaja Asif, said it exposed a contradiction in the government's policy as an ally of Britain in the international war on terrorism.
Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Tasnim Aslam said Rushdie's knighthood would hamper interfaith understanding and that Islamabad would protest to London.
"We deplore the decision of the British government to knight him. This we feel is insensitive and we would convey our sentiments to the British government."
Iran on Sunday also condemned the knighthood for Rushdie.
Iran's late spiritual leader, Ayatollah Khomeini, issued a 1989 fatwa, or religious edict, ordering Muslims to kill the author because The Satanic Verses allegedly insulted Islam. The threat forced Rushdie to live in hiding for a decade.
The British High Commission in Islamabad defended the decision to honour Rushdie — one of the most prominent novelists of the late 20th century whose 13 books have won numerous awards, including theBooker Prize for Midnight's Children in 1981.
"Sir Salman's honour is richly deserved and the reasons for it are self-explanatory," said spokesman Aidan Liddle.

Election will not be postponed again

2007-06-17T00:16:00.001-07:00

Nepal's prime minister will soon announce an election date and has promised he will not let the polls be postponed again, an official said Sunday.
Parliament Speaker Subash Nemwang said he met with the prime minister, who assured him that the elections for the Constituent Assembly will be held in November as planned — and that he will not let the date be changed again.
The eight parties in Nepal's ruling coalition had initially scheduled the elections for June 20, but postponed them after election officials sought more time for technical preparations and for the government to pass new election laws.
The eight parties agreed last month to hold elections on an as-yet-undecided date in November for the assembly, which will rewrite the constitution and decide on a new political system for Nepal.
Communist rebels fought a decade-long insurgency to try ending the Himalayan nation's longtime constitutional monarchy, and mass protests in April 2006 forced the King Gyanendra to relinquish the absolute power he had seized on February 2005.
Under a peace deal reached last year, the communists formed a coalition with an interim government on April 1, 2007, after the former rebels joined Nepal's parliament earlier in the year.
Since January, violent protests the south — where people have complained of government discrimination favoring residents of the north — have stopped officials from registering voters.
Officials have said the security situation in southern Nepal needs to be improved before an election can take place.
The communists have locked up their weapons in seven U.N.-monitored camps, and confined their former fighters to 28 barracks.

election will not be postponed again

2007-06-17T00:16:00.000-07:00

Carter said Nepal's PM is my hero

2007-06-14T09:12:00.000-07:00

President Jimmy Carter called Nepal's prime minister a hero on Thursday, praising a peace process that ended a decade-old communist insurgency in the Himalayan nation.

Carter met with Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala a day after he arrived in Nepal. On Friday he planned to meet the heads of a Maoist group - former communist rebels who gave up their armed revolt last year to join a peace process.

Carter said Koirala "has been a hero for me with his reputation and his integrity.''

"He has been the focal point around which the peace and future democracy of this country has been built,'' Carter said. "I expressed my gratitude to him.''

Koirala has been credited with leading a pro-democracy movement against Nepal's King Gyanendra, forcing the monarch to give up his authoritarian rule last year. Koirala then persuaded the communists to join the peace process and halt their decade-old insurgency.

The Maoists now have a presence in Nepal's parliament and interim government, which is scheduled to hold elections later this year.

Nepal had long been a constitutional monarchy. A special assembly to be elected later this year will rewrite the constitution and decide on the country's future political structure - including whether it will continue having a king, or will become a republic.

Gyanendra seized absolute power on Feb. 1, 2005, citing the government's alleged corruption and failure to halt the communist uprising.

Pro-democracy protests led by Koirala in April 2006 forced Gyanendra to relinquish authoritarian rule and restore democracy, and the monarchy was soon stripped of all his powers

Meeting for Peace or Bargain???

2007-06-12T11:52:00.000-07:00

Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala and Maoist Chairman Prachanda held talks to move the peace process forward that has been bogged down over failure to find a consensus over fixing a date for the Constituent Assembly polls.

The meeting between the two leaders centered around ways to sort out differences among the eight party ruling alliance to fix a date for the Constituent Assembly polls.

During the meeting they also agreed not to make public remarks against each other and resolve the all difference through duologue and mutual understanding, sources close to prime minister's office said.

This is the first meeting between the two leaders after Prime Minister Koirala publicly slammed the Maoists' youth wing, Young Communist League, terming the outfit as Young Criminal League, which sparked verbal war between the two leaders.

Prachanda expressed commitment to change the YCL's behavior if necessary, sources said. However, YCL has been mischievous forever in spite of the repeated commitment from Prachanda.

During the meeting Prime Minister Koirala assured Prachanda that the government was committed to holding the Constituent Assembly polls on time. The duo also agreed to appoint a committee to decide on the future of the Maoist combatants confined at the various cantonments.

Bush says immigration bill will survive!

2007-06-11T09:32:00.000-07:00

By JENNIFER LOVEN, Associated Press Writer1 hour, 6 minutes ago

President Bush, turning from adulation in the Balkans to difficulties back home, said Monday that his stalled immigration overhaul would be revived and his embattled attorney general would not fall under a Senate vote of no-confidence.

"I'll see you at the bill signing," Bush said confidently about an immigration bill that has run into deep trouble on Capitol Hill.

Bush, who left for Washington later Monday, plans to trek to Capitol Hill on Tuesday to have lunch with Republican senators, part of a hands-on approach to persuading party conservatives that the bill is better than the status quo.

He also dismissed a planned Senate vote against Attorney General Alberto Gonzales as a purely political "meaningless resolution," saying it would have "no bearing" on Gonzales' fate.

"I'll make the determination if I think he's effective or not," Bush said.

The no-confidence vote follows months of investigations and the disclosure of internal Justice Department documents that contradicted Gonzales' initial assertions that the firing of federal prosecutors was not politically motivated or directly coordinated with the White House. Bush dinged the Democratic-controlled Senate for ditching the immigration debate in favor of the Gonzales matter.

Warmly welcomed in both Bulgaria and Albania, the president spoke at a news conference in one of Europe's oldest capitals with Bulgarian President Georgi Parvanov. He was to be back at the White House Monday evening, after an eight-day trip that also took him to the Czech Republic, Poland, Germany, Italy and Albania.

On a sunny, cool morning, thousands of Bulgarians lined the cobblestoned main street through Nevsky Square as an honor guard played both countries' national anthems.

Bush and Parvanov walked past a line of Bulgarian troops wearing white coats trimmed in red and navy pants tucked in high black boots. After watching troops goose-stepping to upbeat military music, Bush prayed before a wreath at an eternal flame that marks Bulgaria's tomb of the unknown soldier.

The president greeted a line of Bulgarian soldiers in camouflaged uniforms who have served in Iraq and Afghanistan. The Bulgarian parliament recently extended the Iraq mission until March 2008, and last year, Bulgaria signed an agreement with Washington allowing U.S. troops to use Bulgarian military facilities.

Bush then worked a crowd of locals, reaching in to shake hands. Later outside the news conference, he eagerly approached another curious gathering — the third time in two days he has done something he rarely does at home.

In contrast to thousands of anti-Bush protests at earlier stops and his low approval rating at home, Bush seemed to bask in the affection he received here and, even more enthusiastically, in Albania the day before.

Bush's comments on immigration reflected his determination to pass a bill to give millions of unlawful immigrants a path to citizenship. It is a top priority for the remainder of his presidency, but a fragile bipartisan compromise on the issue has unraveled.

He has been criticized for not doing enough for the bill, which is bitterly opposed by many conservatives in his party. Some lawmakers claim it is dead for the year, but Bush said it was only one step back after "two steps forward" and vowed to push ahead.

"I believe we can get it done," he said.

Once again, Bush was asked about Russian President Vladimir Putin's surprise counterproposal to the U.S. plan for a missile shield in Eastern Europe, based in the Czech Republic and Poland. Putin proposed instead a system anchored around a Soviet-era radar installation in Azerbaijan.

"I don't know whether it's technologically feasible," Bush said of Putin's idea, promising a review by experts.

Bulgaria's leaders are worried that the rocket shield is not intended to cover southeastern parts of Europe, including their own country. Bush said that isn't needed because other defenses cover Bulgaria, but Parvanov said he would only "accept any solution that would provide more guarantees, more security guarantees."

Another worry comes from the tensions the proposed shield have created between the United States and Russia. Moscow fiercely opposes the plan, fearing the shield is aimed at Russia. The United States says no — the shield is aimed at Iran, in case it develops nuclear weapons.

Bulgaria feels caught in the middle. It was the most loyal Soviet ally during the Cold War, and even now is almost entirely dependent on Russian energy supplies.

"Bulgaria should not have to choose between the friendship between the U.S. and the friendship with Russia," Parvanov said.

Bush stressed the strength of U.S. relations with Bulgaria, which shed communism in 1989 and joined NATO in 2004 and the European Union in January.

Parvanov appealed for U.S. help in freeing five Bulgarian nurses and a Palestinian doctor sentenced to death in Libya for allegedly infecting hundreds of children with the AIDS virus. They have been in Libyan custody since 1999, and all deny the charge.

Bush pledged the U.S. will press the Libyan government for their release and contribute to a fund to help the children. "This is an issue that we care about," he said.

Bush also met with Prime Minister Sergei Stanishev, and Parvanov feted him at a formal luncheon at the National Museum of History, outside of town at the foot of green mountains.

"For a person who was raised in the deserts of Texas, this is a beautiful view," Bush said, gesturing to the floor-to-ceiling windows that afforded a dramatic view.

___

Associated Press Writer William J. Kole in Sofia contributed to this report.

Paris Hilton appears in handcuffs as she is taken to court for hearing

2007-06-09T10:17:00.000-07:00

Friday, June 08, 2007

LOS ANGELES (AP) - Paris Hilton was ordered to appear in court Friday instead of calling in from home, yet another reversal in her twisted path toward serving time on a probation violation.

The decision by Superior Court Judge Michael T. Sauer was announced by court spokesman Allan Parachini shortly before the start of a hearing that could put the 26-year-old hotel heiress behind bars again for violating probation in a reckless driving case.

"Judge Sauer has instructed the Sheriff's Department to go to Ms. Hilton's residence, pick her up and bring her here. That is happening now," Parachini told reporters outside the courthouse.

Hilton appeared to be in handcuffs when she was placed into a black-and-white patrol car, which sped away from her home with lights flashing as news helicopters followed.

Early Friday, Parachini announced that Hilton would be allowed to take part in the hearing by telephone. He said he understood that was her attorney's desire and it was not unusual for phones to be used in misdemeanour cases.

Outside the courthouse, people on other business stopped to gawk at news cameras. One of them was Moses Baltazar who was attempting to clear up his own traffic ticket. He said he was no fan of Hilton, noting she once tipped him only a dollar when he worked as a valet, even though he helped keep paparazzi away from her.

He also said there was no excuse for her flouting the law. "Driving like that, you have to behave. If you're rich, you have money, you have to respect yourself," he said, adding he thinks she should be returned to jail.

The frenzy began early Thursday when sheriff's officials released Hilton because of an undisclosed medical condition and sent her home under house arrest. She had been in jail since late Sunday.

Hilton was fitted with an electronic monitoring ankle bracelet and was expected to finish her 45-day sentence for a reckless driving probation violation at her four-bedroom, three-bath home.

The decision by Sheriff Lee Baca to move Hilton chafed prosecutors and Sauer, who spelled out during sentencing that Hilton was not allowed to serve house detention.

Late Thursday, Sauer issued the order for Hilton to return to court after the city attorney filed a petition demanding that Hilton be returned to jail and to show cause why Baca shouldn't be held in contempt of court.

Baca does not have to be in court, and it was unclear who would represent the Sheriff's Department.

The move also was met with outrage from the sheriff's deputies union, members of the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors, civil rights leaders, defence attorneys and others.

"What transpired here is outrageous," county Supervisor Don Knabe told The Associated Press, adding he received more than 400 angry e-mails and hundreds more phone calls from around the country.

Hilton's return home "gives the impression of . . . celebrity justice being handed out," he said.

Baca dismissed the criticism, saying the decision was made based on medical advice.

"It isn't wise to keep a person in jail with her problem over an extended period of time and let the problem get worse," Baca told the Los Angeles Times on Thursday.

"My message to those who don't like celebrities is that punishing celebrities more than the average American is not justice," Baca said.

California Attorney General Jerry Brown criticized the Sheriff's Department for letting Hilton out of jail, saying he believed she should serve out her sentence.

"It does hold up the system to ridicule when the powerful and the famous get special treatment," Brown told The Associated Press in an interview before testifying at a congressional hearing in Washington.

"I'm sure there's a lot of people who've seen their family members go to jail and have various ailments, physical and psychological, that didn't get them released," he said. "I'd say it's time for a course correction."

The Los Angeles County jail system is so overcrowded that attorneys and jail officials have said it is not unusual for nonviolent offenders such as Hilton to be released after serving as little as 10 per cent of their sentences.

In the hours after Hilton's release, it was a madcap scene outside her house in the hills above the Sunset Strip. As word spread that the poster child for bad celebrity behaviour was back home, radio helicopter pilots who normally report on traffic conditions were dispatched to hover over her house and describe it to morning commuters. Paparazzi photographers on the ground quickly assembled outside its gates.

Shortly before noon, Hilton issued a statement through her attorney.

"I want to thank the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department and staff of the Century Regional Detention Center for treating me fairly and professionally," she said. "I am going to serve the remaining 40 days of my sentence. I have learned a great deal from this ordeal and hope that others have learned from my mistakes."

Hilton's path to jail began Sept. 7, when she failed a sobriety test after police saw her weaving down a street in her Mercedes-Benz on what she said was a late-night run to a hamburger stand.

She pleaded no contest to reckless driving and was sentenced to 36 months' probation, alcohol education and $1,500 in fines.

In the months that followed she was stopped twice by officers who discovered her driving on a suspended license. The second stop landed her in Sauer's courtroom, where he sentenced her to jail.

-Erica Werner in Washington contributed to the report.

I am too tired of being called a refugee

2007-05-27T03:23:00.000-07:00

BHUTAN, "I was only five years old when I became a refugee. I have been living in a refugee camp for the last 17 years in Nepal with my parents and three young sisters after the royal government of Bhutan forced us out of our homes [Since 1985, more than 106,000 Bhutanese of Nepalese or Lhotsampa ethnicity have been living as refugees in Nepal after they were evicted from Bhutan following the implementation of a citizenship law stripping them of their citizenship and civil rights].

My great grandparents first came to Bhutan over 200 years ago. It is such a trauma living in a foreign country as a refugee where we have no hope of leading a normal life. In the last 17 years, we have seen many of the older people die. I have watched many of my childhood friends grow up from young boys and girls into men and women. Everyday, we had hoped that the king of Bhutan would have a change of heart and ask us to return to our homes.

I am now 22 years old and all my dreams have shattered. My despair is killing me. Depression is so rampant among the youth that many have become self destructive, left schools and colleges. What is the purpose of getting educated anyway? We cannot get good jobs in this country [Nepal] because as refugees we are often looked down upon, considered as beasts of burden.

The local Nepalese are also tired of seeing us everyday and they think we are responsible for many crimes committed near the camps. We need citizenship to get a job in Nepal. Even if we wanted to travel abroad to the Gulf or south-east Asia, we don't have passports.

Many are working under exploitative conditions. Several of our young female refugees have already become trafficked to work as forced prostitutes in India. We had hopes of India, the United Nations and Nepal to find a durable solution for us. But it has been so many years that we have stopped counting them.

We are so desperate that we are willing to live anywhere in the world now. We have given up on ever returning back to our home in Bhutan. But we don't want to be refugees anymore. I am too tired of being called a refugee." Ghaneswari Rai of Bhutan proclaims.

The most impressive picture for Nonviolence and Peace

2007-05-25T00:38:00.001-07:00

Will this happen in YCL of the Maoists Party??

2007-05-24T23:43:00.000-07:00

YCL to probe atrocities committed in its name

The central committee meeting of the Maoist-affiliated Young Communist League (YCL) ended on Thursday by deciding to probe atrocities committed in its name.

At a press meet, YCL president Ganesh Man Pun said that the YCL will engage in public service and social change. He said the YCL will actively involve in public mobilisation to assist in the Maoist party's move to declare republic and fix new date for CA polls.

Likewise, the meeting also decided to form a committee headed by its general secretary Dilip Prajapati to monitor YCL activities and find out if there is any deviation from its policy.

The meeting was held since Tuesday at the behest of Maoist leadership. On Wednesday, Prachanda directed YCL to stop from engaging in atrocities that could tarnish its image.

The latest YCL decision comes in the wake of growing criticism against its activities including attacks against government offices and employees. A few days ago, PM Koirala had warned that eight party meeting will not be held till YCL improves its behavior.

ADB to pull out from Melamchi

2007-05-16T22:04:00.000-07:00

Maoists Minister Yami says she is not against the project

In response to the news reports that the Asian Development Bank (ADB) is set to pull out from Melamchi Drinking Water Project, Minister for Works and Physical Planning Hisila Yami has said that she is not against the project or the ADB.

"We are not against ADB or Melamchi project. We know that Melamchi is important for the long term," she told Kantipur FM on Thursday morning. "Our only concern is that the government and the people should have the hold on the management of basic things like water," she added.

Following Minister Yami's decision to review the earlier agreement of awarding the contract of managing valley's drinking water to UK's Severn Trent company, the ADB headquarters has written an email to the Finance Minister Dr. Ram Sharan Mahat announcing its intention to pull out from the multi-million dollar project.

Citing its internationally discredited image and need to maintain government/public hold on water management, Minister Yami had made the decision to review the agreement – which has already been approved by the previous cabinet. This agreement (to award the foreign company the contract to manage valley's water distribution) was a precondition for the ADB to invest in the US$ 340 million project.

The ADB is the leading donor of the project and has agreed to provide loan of US$ 140 million for the purpose.

The Melamchi project aims to bring in 170 million litres a day (MLD) water to the Kathmandu valley. The valley has been suffering from acute shortage of drinking water – while its demands have shot up to 240 MLD, the supplies have stagnated at 90 MLD.

Is this the indication of the Maoist rule in future Nepal????

Talks on Maoist-seized properties inconclusive

2007-05-06T20:19:00.000-07:00

A meeting on returning the properties seized by the Maoists in Dang district during the insurgency has ended inconclusively.

Nepali Congress and Maoist leaders held discussion in Tulsipur, Dang, Sunday on how the issue of seized properties could be resolved, but they failed to decide anything amid protests by Maoist cadres and ‘landless people’ who have been using the seized lands.

Maoist activists and landless people staged protest in front of Tulsipur Municipality office where the leaders were holding a meeting. The protesters demanded that no properties seized from landowners be retrieved. The meeting was cancelled after the protesters tried to vandalise the municipality office, reports said.

Senior Maoist leader Dr Baburam Bhattarai, Maoist Rapti Zone in-charge Sudarshan and Nepali Congress leaders Dr Shekhar and Baldev Sharma Majgainya arrived in Dang today to take a decision on seized properties.

The Maoists had seized over 3000-hector land in Dang district alone during the insurgency.

Talking to reporters after the meeting, NC leader Dr Koirala said the issue would be decided by an eight-party meeting.

The Maoist leadership has time and again pledged to return the seized properties, but other ruling allies have been complaining that nothing has been done in this regard.

Yadav puts three preconditions for talks in Delhi

2007-05-01T00:01:00.000-07:00

Upendra Yadav, president of Madhesi Janadhikar Forum (MJF), who is in New Delhi has told reporters that there are three preconditions before he can sit for talks with the government. Formation of high level judicial commission to probe atrocities during Madhesi agitation; stopping government-encouraged attack against MJF cadres; and resignation of Home Minister were the three preconditions Yadav listed before reporters whom he met at the office of Nationalist Congress in New Delhi.

Recently, MJF has formed a talks team headed by Yadav in response to the call for talks made by the government.

At the interaction with reporters, Yadav – who has remained semi-underground in recent months – accused the government of not seriously considering their demands. "If talks are not held, we will stage agitation again," he said.

He also ruled out involvement of Hindu extremists or royalists in MJF agitation.

Yadav is said to be in the Indian capital trying to gain support of Indian politicians for MJF's agitation. He met with general secretary of Nationalist Congress DP Tripathy and communist leader Sitaram Yechury on Monday. He said that he was in New Delhi to seek moral support and solidarity towards Madhes agitation from Indian leaders, people, parties and media.

At the interaction, Yadav – who was accompanied by NC-Democratic leader Pradeep Giri – was highly critical of the Maoists

UN General Secy lauds "rapid strides" in peace process, says questions remain on arms management

2007-04-28T02:43:00.000-07:00

United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Saturday said that Nepal's peace process has made rapid advances albeit questions still remain about the registration of the Maoist arms and armies.
"The peace process in Nepal has made remarkable progress since the start of last year, but complex questions remain about how to monitor the management of arms and armed personnel," Ban said in his Nepal report to the Security council.
The secretary general has also warned that the upcoming Constituent Assembly elections must be conducted in a manner that reflects the "genuine will" of the Nepalis, including those communities that have been marginalized traditionally.
“Few could have imagined at the beginning of 2006 that an end to the armed conflict would have been declared, the UN would have started implementing an agreement on managing arms and armed personnel, and that the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) would have entered an interim legislature with the Government," Ban's progress report said.
Ban has also lauded the political parties for displaying willingness seek consensus on some of the most contentious issues, adding however, that some of the underlying causes of the conflict are yet to be tackled.
“These are historic achievements,” Ban's report, released a year after the April uprising said.
Meanwhile, Ban has expressed concern regarding the living-conditions inside the PLA cantonments.
“Conditions at cantonment sites have been of great concern to the UN Mission in Nepal (UNMIN),” particularly given the scheduled arrival in mid-June of the annual monsoon rains, Ban said.
“It will also require a cooperative effort to establish public security through effective law enforcement that respects human rights, in a country previously divided between State and non-State actors and where the police have yet to be deployed nationwide.”

Poudel feels eight parties lack confidence in Nepal

2007-04-26T02:48:00.000-07:00

A senior minister has revealed that the leaders of the eight parties have failed as they lack self-confidence to move ahead as per their publicised road map.
Peace and Reconstruction Minister Ram Chandra Poudel, who is second in hierarchy after Prime Minister Koirala in the current cabinet, has said the eight parties have lacked confidence to meet and fix new date for the CA elections.
"The party leaders are yet to overcome the tradition of pointing fingers at each other for any weakness," he said, speaking at a programme by Nepal Teachers' Association in Pokhara, Wednesday.
Poudel accused that the eight party leaders were trying to keep the people in perpetual confusion by not giving a way out to the current deadlock by quickly announcing new date for elections.
On the occasion of Democracy day celebration the mass threw stones and water bottles to minister Poudel thinking that his party is responsible for not being able to conduct CA elections on spiluted time.

NEPAL: SELF PRAISE IS NO “RECOMMENDATION”

2007-04-10T22:20:00.000-07:00

TGW
The Nepali society is composed of various characters. Understandably, when the characters differ, their attitudes and leanings also differ automatically.

Thanks that Mother Nature has been still surviving with such differing views. After all she is mother and thus she has to understand the weaknesses of her children.

There are men in the society who would very much wish to listen to their own praise. Others would want that from others’ mouth.

There are yet some more who themselves act for themselves when others do not do a favor for him.

More or less, such habits are common among the human beings.

To come to the point, King Gyanendra concluded that he could alone bring about the panacea for all of the ailments of the country and suddenly usurped power.
He failed miserably because he could not gauge the mood of the SPA leaders plus those of the Maoists and above all-our big brother.

Likewise, Prime Minister Koirala too has a habit of talking very high of his own personality. Indeed he is a towering political persona, but then yet to talk high of himself and that too in a brazen manner is what I call self praise is no recommendation.

This time our prime minister not only talked high of himself but he did so at the cost of the Maoists.

I presume, there is no need to degrade others for the sake of acquiring self prestige and cheap popularity.

Koirala at the inaugural session of the SAARC conference that has just concluded bluntly said that it was him “alone” that could dare to bring in the “Terrorists” to the mainstream politics of this beleaguered country.

While Koirala was bagging accolades from his South Asian colleagues in Delhi, here in Kathmandu the Maoists appeared pretty annoyed at the manner Koirala presented them in the international fora.

The fact is that when Koirala was dubbing the Maoists as terrorists, the Maoists were already in the government led none less than by Koirala himself. So how come Koirala could collect the courage and demean the Maoists when they had already become a part and parcel of the country’s mainstream politics? A blunder indeed.

I presume, Indian Prime Minister Dr. Man Mohan Singh must have laughed upon listening at the manner Koirala self eulogized his performances. Who else better knows than Dr. Singh that how Koirala was made to succeed. If there is yet another person in India then it should be Shyam Saran who in effect maneuvered the entire “throw” the King game. He is a retired bureaucrat now. Let’s not forget what contributions were made by Indian envoy by Shiv Shanker Mukherjee. He is Lord Shiva’s two forms in one. He deserves more than what is being given to him by the Indian establishment. Ambassador to London! He should have been sent to Thimpu to bring democracy there. Not the time perhaps till a severe power crunch gripped India.

At best what Koirala did was that he led the entire movement and the Maoists trusted upon his tall political personality.

Koirala thinks that the Nepalese and the Maoists-who most of the time resided in Delhi leaving the cadres in the jungles-were fools.

NO we are not fools as Koirala claims or have in his sober mind.

How the Maoists could gulp this Koirala bitter pill administered to their entire political paraphernalia in Delhi will have to be watched.

But then yet Prachanda appears not to have taken in good taste what Koirala said of his party in Delhi. Prachanda too knows well how Koirala was made to succeed. Thanks Delhi that your charismatic role mesmerized Nepali leaders who began concluding that they alone brought about such a tumultuous change in this country.

Let’s admit the fact that had the Maoists not put its entire energy and courage during the popular movement-2 last year around this time, Koirala would still have been in the Ratnapark-to Ratnapark demonstrations. Thanks the Maoists that the movement took a different shape and the King had to yield.

It remains yet to be seen what price we the people will have to pay for all that India did not so in the distant past.

I would thus appeal Koirala to abandon such habits wherein he has to demean others for the sake of enhancing self-image and prestige.

The fact is that Koirala is a towering persona by all means. We salute him for all what he did for the country. This is taken for granted. He need not come so down that people begin thi9nking different of him. That’s all.

Ex-Gurkhas demand equal treatment

2007-03-28T21:30:00.000-07:00

In a letter to British Prime Minister Tony Blair Wednesday former British Gurkhas demanded service perks and benefits equivalent to those given to their British counterparts.
Former Gurkhas have demanded that the British government correct its decision to give full British Army pensions only to those Gurkhas who retired after July 1, 1997. They are of the openion that this would mean injustice to 22,000 other Gurkhas who had retired earlier.
Thankingthe British PM and the government for taking a step towards decreasing the discrimination by providing the former British Gurkhas with British citizenship, housing facilities and better pensions, the Gurkha Army Ex-Servicemen’s Organization (GAESO), British Gurkha Welfare Society and United British Gurkha Ex-Servicemen's Association have sought the British government's attention towards still prevelling the injustice and discrimination with Ex Gurkhas.
On March 8, the British Parliament had decided that Gurkhas –who had retired after 1997--would finally get full British Army pensions — nearly 200 years after they started fighting for the UK.
Meanwhile, former British Gurkhas continued a sit-in programme today as well in the premises of the United Nations office, Pulchowk, saying that the British Government has discriminated them for ages.
The sit-in programme organized by the Joint British Gurkha Ex-servicemen’s Association, Nepal, would last till tomorrow.
The Association has said that British Parliamentarian Peter Carol is to mark 'International Gurkhas Justice Week' from March 29 to April 1 against the British Government policy regarding the inequality of the facilities including for treatment, pension and salary.

Premier Indian steel group to pull out of Nepal

2007-03-13T11:56:00.000-07:00

Kathmandu, March 13 One of India's prime steel manufacturers, the Rs.60 billion Bhushan group, has decided to pull out of Nepal because of the prevailing political, power and labour problems.

'We don't need the tension,' Roshit Unnithan, general manager of Aarti Strips Private Ltd, the group's venture in Nepal, told IANS. 'We can do better business in India.'

Begun in 2001 with an initial investment of about Rs.200 million, Aarti Strips today has a paid up capital of about Rs.2.5 billion and provides employment to nearly 300 people.

'We pay the Nepal government a revenue of Rs.200-250 million every year and bring in about Rs.5 billion by way of export at a time Nepal is facing an acute shortage of Indian currency,' Unnithan said.

On Sunday, the board of directors of the Bhushan Group decided to wind up business in Nepal and relocate the factory either to Assam or West Bengal in India.

'We earned Rs.5 billion last year and this year have contracts worth Rs.6 billion,' Unnithan said. 'We didn't suffer a loss but the tension became unbearable.'

Last year, another Indian company, Hindustan Steels' Crescent Nepal, decided to move out of Nepal.

'Nepal is the only place where we have to pay export duty,' said Unnithan, whose group has business dealings in countries as diverse as Ethiopia, Iran, Australia, the UAE and China.

'Before every budget, we wrote to the Nepal government with no result. In India, we have a better power situation and better tax incentives.

'Our departure is definitely going to affect the import-export balance.'

The Indian industry is located in Biratnagar town in Morang district in southeastern Nepal. Though the hometown of Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala, who began his political career as a trade union activist in a jute mill, Biratnagar's industrial base has been suffering due to a combination of several factors.

It is located in the Terai plains that have been volatile since 2003.

Judd Promotes Women's Rights in India

2007-03-12T12:04:00.000-07:00

The Associated PressMonday
MUMBAI, India -- Helping women to understand their rights is crucial in the fight against HIV/AIDS, said Ashley Judd in an interview published Monday.
Grass-roots prevention programs that target women work well, the 38-year-old Hollywood actress told the Mumbai-based DNA newspaper.
Judd is representing Population Services International, a Washington-based nonprofit organization, during her weeklong visit to India to promote awareness about HIV/AIDS.
She met sex workers in Mumbai, India's financial and entertainment capital, after her arrival Saturday. Aid workers estimate there are at least 10,000 sex workers in Mumbai, formerly known as Bombay.
"The empowerment of girls and women is an essential tool to preventing the HIV/AIDS emergency from exploding any further," DNA quoted Judd as saying.
The actress, whose movies include "De-Lovely" and "Kiss the Girls," has traveled across the world to focus attention on HIV/AIDS.
Most women have "dreams for other people, but not dreams for themselves," she said. "That is painful."
With 5.7 million infections, India has the world's largest number of people living with HIV/AIDS. The government has launched campaigns encouraging high-risk groups such as sex workers to use condoms, aimed at stopping the disease from spreading.
"There is a common problem worldwide and there is also a common solution," Judd said about the need for more prevention and awareness programs.
___

China officially enters mogul dynasty

2007-03-09T11:33:00.000-08:00

Author:Jackie Farwell
WHAT could a Chinese dumpling maker and Mexican telecom mogul possibly have in common?They're among a record number of people who held the title of billionaire over the past year.
The tally of billionaires around the globe reached a high of 946, their combined wealth growing 35 percent to US$3.5 trillion, according to Forbes magazine's 2007 rankings of the world's richest people.
The rich cashed in on strong equity markets, real estate and commodity prices globally, according to Forbes billionaires' co-editor Luisa Kroll.
"It's just been kind of an extraordinary year for markets worldwide," she said.
Self-made tycoon Li Wei, founder of Synear Food Holdings, made the list for the first time along with a dozen other Chinese newcomers.
Her company, one of China's largest producers of frozen food, including sweet and meat dumplings, is an official supplier to the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games.
Leading the list are two men who manage to keep getting richer as they give more and more money away. Microsoft founder Bill Gates ranked No. 1 for the 13th straight year, beating out friend and fellow philanthropist Warren Buffett, chairman of Berkshire Hathaway Inc.
Gates's fortune rose US$6 billion to US$56 billion last year, while Buffett garnered in an additional US$10 billion to boost his net worth to US$52 billion.
Only five Americans ranked in the top 20, though they account for 44 percent of the overall list.Breathing down Buffett's neck was Mexican telecom giant Carlos Slim Helu, who added US$19 billion to his existing fortune, the largest one-year gain over the past decade. With US$49 billion to his name, Helu was just US$3 billion shy of the No. 2 spot.Starbucks Corp Chairman Howard Schultz and former Disney CEO Michael Eisner joined the ranks of the world's richest for the first time, behind new faces Mike Lazaridis and Jim Balsillie, Canadian co-chiefs of Blackberry maker Research In Motion Ltd.
All bets were off for online gambling moguls Ruth Parasol, Russell DeLeon and Calvin Ayre, who dropped from the list after recent crackdowns limiting offshore gambling Websites.
Bumped from the top 20 were the Wal-Mart Stores Inc heirs, who saw their company's stock languish, and Michael Dell, founder of computer maker Dell Inc.
Losing billionaire status entirely was Yoshiaki Tsutsumi, the once-powerful Japanese industrialist who first topped the tally in 1987.

Why is President Bush Firing Corruption Investigators?

2007-03-06T09:58:00.000-08:00

Dear bhupal,

In recent weeks, a series of news stories have emerged that paint a disturbing picture: the Bush Administration has systematically removed US Attorneys who were leading corruption investigations into public officials. And it's happened in as many as eight or nine cases.

Write to your Senators and Representative to demand that Congress get to the bottom of this story and insulate US Attorneys from political interference.

Among other tasks, United States Attorneys are responsible for investigating and prosecuting elected officials for public corruption. As you can imagine, these investigations are at once politically-charged and critical to holding government accountable. But in recent months, the Bush Administration has replaced US Attorneys like Carol Lam of San Diego, who put Duke Cunningham behind bars.

Take action now to prevent these firings from continuing. Write to Congress to ensure that US Attorneys can do their jobs to root out corruption, regardless of partisan politics.

Hearings start today in Congress to get to the bottom of these stories. Former US Attorneys from all over the country have been subpoenaed. It is critical that Congress hear from you that continued political interference won't be tolerated.

Thanks,

David Donnelly
National Campaigns Director

Afghans riot after gunfire kills civilians

2007-03-05T11:51:00.000-08:00

From Tribune news services

BARIKAW, Afghanistan -- A suicide bombing aimed at a U.S. military convoy triggered a chaotic round of gunfire Sunday on a busy highway in eastern Afghanistan, leaving at least eight Afghan civilians dead and about three dozen wounded, officials said.

The incident, which occurred outside Jalalabad, set off a stone-throwing riot in which hundreds of protesters claiming that U.S. troops fired indiscriminately on civilians shouted slogans denouncing the United States and the government of President Hamid Karzai.

It was the highest civilian death toll this year in an incident involving U.S. or other foreign troops. The Afghan president has made repeated public appeals to allied forces to exercise greater care to avoid killing or wounding civilians.

The U.S. military said the unit came under fire after a suicide bomber detonated his explosives-laden car near the U.S. convoy "as part of a complex ambush involving enemy small-arms fire from several directions.

"The U.S. troops returned fire, and the civilians were killed and wounded in the crossfire, according to a statement from the military press office at Bagram Air Base, near Kabul Afghanistan's Interior Ministry and injured Afghans said most of the bullets came from Americans.

As the U.S. troops fled, they treated every car and person along the busy highway as a potential attacker, said Mohammad Khan Katawazi, the district chief of Shinwar in Nangarhar province.

"I saw them turning and firing in this direction, then turning and firing in that direction," Ahmed Najib, a 23-year-old hit in the shoulder by a bullet, said of the U.S. forces. "I even saw a farmer shot by the Americans."

Lt. Col. David Accetta, the top U.S. military spokesman in Afghanistan, said gunmen may have fired on U.S. forces at multiple points.

"We regret the death of innocent Afghan citizens as a result of the Taliban extremists' cowardly act," Accetta said in a statement. "Once again the terrorists demonstrated their blatant disregard for human life by attacking coalition forces in a populated area, knowing full well that innocent Afghans would be killed and wounded in the attack."

Afghan and U.S. military officials said they would investigate the incident.

The U.S.-based Human Rights Watch estimates that more than 100 Afghan civilians died as a result of NATO and coalition assaults in 2006. An Associated Press tally, based on reports from Afghan, NATO and coalition officials, puts the overall civilian death toll in 2006 at 834, most from militant attacks.

Nine witnesses, including five Afghans recuperating from bullet wounds in the hospital, told the AP that U.S. forces fired indiscriminately along a 6-mile stretch of one of eastern Afghanistan's busiest highways--a route often filled with drivers and people walking and riding bicycles.

"They were firing everywhere, and they even opened fire on 14 to 15 vehicles passing on the highway," said Tur Gul, 38, who was standing on the roadside by a gas station and was shot twice in the hand.

"They opened fire on everybody, the ones inside the vehicles and the ones on foot."The tolls varied.

The Interior Ministry said 10 people were killed, while the provincial health chief said eight died.The U.S. military said eight civilians were killed and 34 wounded after earlier saying 16 were killed and 24 wounded. It did not explain the revised, lower death toll, saying only that the new figures were "the most accurate numbers to date."

A U.S. Marine also was injured in the suicide blast.Interior Ministry spokesman Zemeri Bashary said the chief of the ministry's criminal division would lead a delegation including a U.S.-led coalition official to Nangarhar province Monday to investigate.

At the Jalalabad hospital, several victims said the American convoy approached them on the highway and opened fire. As the convoy neared, many cars pulled to the side of the road, but the vehicles still were hit by gunfire, the wounded said.

Mohammad Karim, an 18-year-old employee at a hotel near the blast site, said he ran outside after the explosion and saw U.S. forces fire a stream of bullets at a four-wheel drive vehicle.

"I ran to the vehicle to see how many people were inside. We found three dead bodies, and one wounded, but he was also in a very critical condition," Karim said. "All four people were from one family."

An AP reporter at the scene said the vehicle was riddled by dozens of bullets. U.S. forces later deleted photos of the vehicle taken by a freelance photographer working for the AP and video taken by a freelancer working for AP Television News. Neither the photographer nor the cameraman witnessed the suicide attack or the subsequent gunfire.

The freelance photographer, Rahmat Gul, said a U.S. soldier took his camera and deleted the photos, saying he didn't have permission to take them.

Activists protest in Nepal's capital demanding reinstatement of Hindu nation status

2007-03-05T00:06:00.000-08:00

The Associated Press

KATMANDU, Nepal: Hindu ascetics and activists protested in the Nepalese capital on Sunday to urge the government to reinstate Hinduism as the state religion and reverse its decision to declare the country a secular state.

About 200 protesters, including ash-smeared saffron-clad holy men known as sadhus, demonstrated in front of the central secretariat building which contains the prime minister's office and other ministries.

"More than 82 percent of the populations in Nepal are Hindus. How can the handful of members of the so-called parliament take such a big decision that erases Nepal from the world map as the only Hindu kingdom in the world?" asked Hem Bahadur Thapa, general secretary of World Hindu Federation's Nepal wing.

"We would (have) accepted the decision if it had been taken after a referendum," Thapa said.

A minister said the government's decision would stand and that no religion would be given preference in Nepal.

"The state has no religion. It is up to everyone to follow their own belief. The nation will not give any special treatment to any religion and all individuals are free to follow their religious faith," said Transport Minister Ramesh Lekhak.

The protesters also carried banners that said Nepal should continue to have a king.

A special assembly to be elected later this year will decide if Nepal, a country of 28 million people, will continue its long tradition of being a monarchy.

Nepal's King Gyanendra was forced to give up authoritarian rule last year following weeks of pro-democracy protests. Since then, he has been stripped of all his powers and command of the army.

"Monarchy is essential for maintaining Nepal's existence and its integrity, so we strongly favor monarchy in the country," said Thapa. "Nepal was unified by the monarch and its existence is possible only if monarchy exists in Nepal."

Nepali HR groups for Rome Statute

2007-03-01T10:58:00.000-08:00

Various human rights organisations have protested the government's indifference towards acceding to the Rome Statute, the founding treaty of the International Criminal Court (ICC).

Human rights activists staging sit-in before submitting a memorandum to Speaker Subas Nemwang urging for immediate ratification of Rome Statute, the founding treaty of the International Criminal Court (ICC), at Maitighar Mandala in Kathmandu, Thursday, Mar 01 07.

Representatives of nine human rights organisations submitted a memorandum to Speaker Subash Nemwang on Thursday urging the parliament to pressure the government to endorse the Rome Statute, which will pave the way for trying individuals accused of human rights abuses and war crimes.

In their memorandum, nine rights organisations including Amnesty International's Nepal chapter, INSEC, Advocacy Forum, Federation of Nepalese Journalists and National Coalition for the ICC, stated that the government failed to accede to the treaty despite the parliament's direction seven months ago to start the ratification process in order to end the culture of impunity.

A government taskforce formed to study the Rome Statute had submitted its report to Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister KP Oli on October 18.

Receiving the memorandum, Speaker Nemwang expressed dissatisfaction over the long delay in acceding to the Rome Statute despite the parliamentary order. Saying that the parliament's directions are binding to the government, he said the parliament would take further initiative in this regard.

Few weeks earlier, the Coalition for ICC (CICC) had in a letter to Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala urged the Nepal government to ratify the treaty.

104 countries have already joined the ICC, which is the first permanent international court capable of trying individuals accused of crimes against humanity, war crimes and genocide. The CICC is an international network of more than 2,000 non-governmental organisations advocating for a fair, effective and independent court.

Currently, only six Asian countries-Afghanistan, Cambodia, Mongolia, Republic of Korea, Timor-Leste, and Tajikistan- are state parties to the ICC. In contrast, the majority of states in Africa, Europe, Latin America and the Caribbean have joined the Court.

Can Kishunji's fovor save Monarchy in Nepal?

2007-02-28T10:54:00.000-08:00

Kishunji favors powerless monarchy

Senior Congress leader and former prime minister Krishna Prasad Bhattarai has said that he is still in favor of powerless monarchy in the country.

At a time when there is a growing demand for republic by the parties, especially the Maoists, and other organisations, the only surviving founding leader of Nepali Congress said he does not think going for republic will be a good idea for the country.

Talking to journalists in Bhairahawa this afternoon, Bhattarai, however, said that he does not want a powerful monarchy. He said the monarchy should be bound by constitution. He said that greed for power and money had brought this situation to the monarchy in the country.

Bhattarai, who had returned from pilgrimage to Benaras, India, added he will abide by the decision of Nepali people over the issue of monarchy. He also urged the two Congress parties to unite. He returned to the capital on Wednesday.

Bhattarai's position resembles with what his party colleague and current Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala had been saying about the need to give space to ceremonial monarchy. Bhattarai has been living a life of a political recluse for the past few years. He had earlier said that he will not return to active politics until and unless the two Congress parties unite.

Hague court names Darfur suspects

2007-02-27T10:33:00.000-08:00

Correspondents in Amsterdam
28feb07

THE long journey to justice for the 200,000 civilians killed in Darfur began last night in The Hague with the naming as war crime suspects of a Sudanese government minister and a commander of the janjaweed militia.

Humanitarian Affairs Minister Ahmed Haroun and janjaweed commander Ali Muhammad Ali Abd-al-Rahman - also known as as Ali Kushayb - became the first suspects of the 2003-04 Darfur conflict to be named at the International Criminal Court.

Chief prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo said the pair were suspected of 51 counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity, and asked pre-trial judges to issue warrants for their arrest.

Mr Moreno-Ocampo said his investigation had established a link between the Sudanese authorities and the janjaweed, strongly denied by Khartoum.

Mr Moreno-Ocampo alleges Mr Haroun and Ali Kushayb were responsible for massacres, the eviction of thousands of civilians from their homes and mass rapes.

He says there was reason to believe they "bear criminal responsibility for crimes against humanity and war crimes committed in Darfur".

Mr Haroun recruited janjaweed "with full knowledge that they, often in the course of joint attacks with the armed forces, would commit crimes against humanity and war crimes against the civilian population".

The alleged offences occurred in four villages, he said. "Janjaweed did not target any rebel presence within these particular towns and villages. Rather, they attacked these towns and villages based on the rationale that the tens of thousands of civilian residents in and near these towns and villages were supporters of the rebel militia."

The strategy became the justification for mass murder, summary executions and mass rape of civilians "known not to be participants in any armed conflict".

"Application of the strategy also called for, and achieved the forced displacement of, entire villages and communities."

The prosecution document is not an indictment, but a recommendation to indict.

If Mr Haroun and Kushayb were charged and convicted, they would face life imprisonment.

In Khartoum, there was no immediate government reaction to the allegations against Mr Haroun, who was interior minister at the height of the conflict.

Experts say about 200,000 people have been killed and 2.5million others driven from their homes in Darfur since 2003, when rebel militias began fighting for control of the oil-rich region.

Khartoum says about 9000 people have died in the fighting.

In March 2005, the UN Security Council asked the ICC to investigate the violence, which the US brands as genocide, a charge that Khartoum denies.

Sudan's Justice Minister, Mohamed Ali al-Mardi, said on Monday the ICC had no jurisdiction over its nationals and it would not allow anybody to be tried outside the country.

Sudanese media reported that Khartoum would put several people on trial, including military personnel and paramilitary troops, for suspected involvement in attacks in Darfur.

Mr Moreno-Ocampo has said he would examine whether Sudan is conducting its own judicial proceedings, as the ICC is supposed to prosecute only when national courts are unwilling or unable to act. Rights groups say Khartoum's investigations and tribunals for crimes in Darfur have been largely for show.

Some analysts suggest Khartoum has resisted pressure to authorise a deployment of thousands of UN peacekeeping troops to support a 7000-strong African Union mission in Darfur because it fears UN soldiers might be used to arrest ICC suspects.

The ICC, the world's first permanent war crimes court, was set up in 2002 and is supported by 104 nations, although not by Russia, China and the US.

Reuters, AP

How many Gurkhas will be in British troops in Afghanistan?

2007-02-26T09:06:00.000-08:00

Britain to send 1,400 more troops to Afghanistan

Last Updated: Monday, February 26, 2007

CBC News

Britain's defense minister announced Monday her country will send an additional 1,400 troops to bolster NATO forces in Afghanistan, less than a week after Prime Minister Tony Blair pledged to reduce the size of British forces in Iraq.

Des Browne told Parliament Monday that the troops will augment the British contingent in Helmand province, an area in the volatile south where Taliban insurgency flared last year.

The deployment comes in anticipation of a potential renewed Taliban offensive with the coming of spring in the region.

Browne said the increase was necessary after countries such as Britain, the U.S. and Canada failed to convince other NATO members to contribute more forces to the Afghan mission.

The additional troops would bring Britain's fighting force in Afghanistan up to 7,700, the second largest presence after the United States. The force is expected to remain in the country until at least 2009.

Earlier this month, U.S. President George W. Bush said he would send an extra 3,200 troops to Afghanistan, which would boost the number of U.S. forces members to about 27,000 at least through the spring of 2008. The U.S. troop level in Afghanistan in 2006 was about 23,000.

Canada has more than 2,000 troops in the country.

The announcement came on the same day as Prime Minister Stephen Harper announced about $200 million in reconstruction aid for Afghanistan.

Pressing for help

Efforts to get other NATO members to commit more ground forces to strengthen security in Afghanistan have largely failed.

In addition, several nations have placed caveats on their troops' deployment that limit their use, such as not letting them serve in hostile areas or leave bases at night.

Meanwhile, Britain's Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett was in Pakistan Monday for a meeting with Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf.

She said Pakistan needs to do more on its side of the porous Afghan-Pakistan border to fight the Taliban.

Freed China Aids activist off to US

2007-02-25T11:58:00.000-08:00

Reuters

BEIJING: A 79-year-old prominent Chinese Aids activist is to fly to the United States to receive a human rights award after she was freed from house arrest thanks to US Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton.

Gao Yaojie is to receive the Vital Voices Global Women's Leadership Award for Human Rights in Washington in March for helping bring to light official complicity in the spread of Aids in her home province Henan in central China, where thousands of poor farmers sold blood in the 1990s and have been infected.

To prevent her from going and embarrassing China, police in Zhengzhou, provincial capital of Henan, placed Gao under house arrest on February 1. The move sparked an international outcry.

Henan authorities relented and freed her on February 16, days after Clinton, a Democratic presidential-hopeful, wrote to Chinese President Hu Jintao and Vice Premier Wu Yi, urging them to intervene and let Gao leave for the United States.

"World pressure was too heavy. Henan was ordered by the central government (to let me go) because China did not want relations with the United States to become too tense," the retired gynaecologist said in her Beijing hotel room.

A vice health minister paid Gao a courtesy call last week to extend the vice premier's greetings, a sign of a change of heart.

But fellow Aids activist Hu Jia declined to reveal Gao's departure details in case the authorities decide to change their mind about letting her go. She plans to return in late March.

In 2001, Gao was barred from leaving China to collect the Jonathan Mann Award for Global Health and Human Rights. Two years later, Chinese authorities prevented her from visiting Manila to receive the Ramon Magsaysay Award for Public Service.

Asked why provincial authorities initially barred her from leaving, Gao said: "They're afraid I would expose the truth.

"Blood transfusions fuelled the spread of Aids, not sexual transmission as they claim," Gao said.

Gao was among the first to expose a scandal in Henan in which people sold blood to unsanitary, often state-run health clinics, making the province the centre of China's Aids epidemic. No senior official has been prosecuted or publicly punished.

Blood-selling schemes have been banned in Henan but are not uncommon in the southwestern provinces of Sichuan and Guizhou, southern Guangxi, eastern Anhui and northern Hebei.

As of October, China had officially recorded 183,733 cases of HIV, including 12,464 already dead. But many people at risk are not tested, and some experts fear the real number is much higher.

Henan health authorities have asked Gao to water down her story when she speaks during her US visit, but she was adamant.

For a woman whose feet were bound – according to ancient custom – when she was five until 11, Gao has come a long way.

Gao, who speaks Chinese with the heavy burr of Henan, is well-known in China and received warm local media coverage until her unflinching criticism became too much.

She wrote books and material warning people of the risks of blood-selling, making her a target of local authorities fearful of the social stigma and political sensitivity surrounding Aids.

Gao has also helped 164 Aids orphans find new homes.

The prestige has come at a price. Her son and a brother begged her not to go, ostensibly due to official pressure.

"I have mixed feelings. I don't know how they will treat me after my return," she said. "I'm better off dead than alive. If I'm dead, everything will be fine," said Gao, who was purged and attempted suicide during the 1966-76 Cultural Revolution.

Iranian envoy blasts US, UK, Israel

2007-02-24T11:27:00.000-08:00

United Nations, Feb 24: Iran accused the United States, Britain and Israel of making "baseless allegations" about its nuclear ambitions, insisting that it has always considered weapons of mass destruction to be "inhumane, immoral and illegal."

Iran's deputy U.N. ambassador Mehdi Danesh Yazdi told the U.N. Security Council Friday that his country has an "inalienable right" to develop nuclear technology for peaceful purposes and would not "give in to the pressures emanating from groundless and unsubstantiated allegations and ulterior political motives."

Iran was a last-minute addition to the list of countries speaking at a daylong council meeting on implementation of a 2004 resolution requiring all U.N. member states to pass laws to keep nuclear, chemical and biological weapons out of the hands of terrorists and black marketeers. The meeting took place a day after the International Atomic Energy Agency reported that Iran had ignored a council ultimatum to freeze uranium enrichment — a possible pathway to nuclear arms — and had instead expanded its program.

Iran's President and a former President accused the West on Friday of "bullying" Tehran through ultimatums and threats of new sanctions. Divisions had emerged within the Iranian leadership over President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's handling of the nuclear standoff following the council's adoption of limited economic sanctions against Iran in December.

Some Iranians believe Ahmadinejad has been too antagonistic toward the U.S. and its allies. Former President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani in recent weeks has emerged as a high-level advocate of a more conciliatory stance toward the West in the nuclear dispute. But Rafsanjani told worshippers gathered for Friday prayers in Tehran, the Iranian capital, that Western countries would fail to achieve anything by pressuring Iran over its nuclear activities.

And, in northern Iran, Ahmadinejad told a crowd of thousands: "The Iranian nation has resisted all bullies and corrupt powers and it will fully defend all its rights," according to state television. The U.N. nuclear agency's report set the stage for difficult negotiations on new U.N. sanctions, with the United States, Britain and France again likely to seek tougher measures than Russia and China will accept. Senior diplomats from the five permanent Security Council nations and Germany will meet on Monday in London to start work on a new resolution to try to pressure Iran to suspend enrichment.

U.S. deputy ambassador Jackie Sanders told Friday's open meeting that, "unfortunately, Iran has yet to ... make the strategic decision to cooperate with the international community and end its pursuit of a nuclear weapons capability," she said.

Britain's U.N. ambassador mentioned "our continuing concern at developments in Iran and the failure of the government of Iran to meet the obligations" to halt enrichment. And Israel's deputy U.N. ambassador said the Iranian supply of weapons to Hezbollah fighters in Lebanon violated the 2004 resolution.

The Iranian envoy said it was unreasonable for countries that have nuclear weapons to "threaten others with their massive arsenals and aggressive policies, while crying wolf about others' peaceful nuclear program."

Bureau Report

Top US Senator Will Introduce Clean Elections Bill

2007-02-23T09:24:00.000-08:00

As we write, Senator Richard Durbin (D-IL), the Senate's second highest-ranking Democrat, is preparing to launch an historic campaign to win Clean Elections in Congress. Last month he announced on the floor of the Senate his plans to introduce a sweeping Clean Elections bill. He spoke of the initial series of ethics and lobbying reforms passed by Congress and added “I hope it will only be the beginning and that we can move, even in this session of Congress, to meaningful hearings and the passage of public financing of campaigns that will truly reform the way we elect men and women to office at the federal level and restore respect to this great institution of the U.S. Congress, both the House and the Senate."

Read the text of his speech announcing the bill here.

In the House, Reps. John Tierney (D-MA) and Raul Grijalva (D-AZ) are prepared to introduce companion Clean Elections legislation.

After last year's Voters First advocacy campaign, over 100 members of the House and Senate on public record in support of public financing of federal elections, nearly tripling previous support. If enacted, Clean Elections would allow candidates for Congress to seek office without depending on well-heeled campaign contributors and instead provide candidates who collect a set number of small dollar qualifying contributions, refuse further private donations, and agree to spending limits with a grant to run their campaigns. Once in office, he or she would be accountable to the voters who got them there, not special interests who helped finance their campaigns.

Iran defies deadline to halt atom work: U.N. watchdog

2007-02-22T09:40:00.000-08:00

By Mark Heinrich
Reuters
Thursday, February 22, 2007

VIENNA (Reuters) - The U.N.'s nuclear watchdog said on Thursday Iran had failed to meet a February 21 deadline to suspend enrichment of uranium, exposing Tehran to possible new sanctions over concerns it hopes to produce an atomic bomb.

The International Atomic Energy Agency said in a report Iran had installed two cascades, or networks, of 164 centrifuges in its underground Natanz enrichment plant with another two cascades close to completion.

This amounted to an effort to escalate research-level enrichment of nuclear fuel into "industrial scale" production.

"Iran has not suspended its enrichment-related activities," said the confidential IAEA report, obtained by Reuters.

By ignoring the deadline, Tehran reaffirmed its rejection of a mid-2006 offer by six world powers of talks on trade benefits provided it halted enrichment, a process that can yield nuclear power plant fuel or bombs.

The U.N. Security Council imposed sanctions on Iran in a December 23 resolution that banned transfers of atomic technology and know-how to Iran. The resolution authorizes the council to take further measures if Iran flouted the deadline.

Additional penalties might include a travel ban on senior Iranian officials and restrictions on non-nuclear business.

The Islamic Republic, which says its nuclear fuel program is designed only to produce electricity, remained defiant.

"Regarding the suspension mentioned in the report, because such a demand has no legal basis and is against international treaties, naturally, it could not be accepted by Iran," Mohammad Saeedi, deputy head of Iran's Atomic Energy Organization, told Reuters in Tehran.

He said the report showed the best way to resolve the dispute was to return to talks.

U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said he was "deeply concerned. I urge again that the Iranian government should fully comply with the demands as soon as possible and engage in negotiations with the international community so that we can resolve this issue peacefully."

URANIUM FUEL

The report said Iranian workers lowered into the Natanz plant an 8.7-ton container of uranium hexafluoride gas (UF-6) to prepare to feed centrifuges, which purify the material into power plant fuel or, if refined to high levels, for bombs.

Iran had told the IAEA it intended to have 3,000 centrifuges, divided into 18 cascades, installed and brought "gradually into operation" by May.

The 3,000 centrifuge machines would lay the basis for "industrial-scale" fuel production involving some 54,000.

The report said Iran had agreed to interim IAEA verification procedures at the underground plant but not to remote camera monitoring. The IAEA had warned Iran this restriction would violate non-proliferation safeguard rules once more than 500 centrifuges were installed, according to the report.

It said Iran remained far away from enriching uranium in quantities suitable for use in nuclear energy plants.

A senior U.N. official familiar with IAEA operations in Iran said Tehran had produced a minute amount of the feed material.

Analysts say Iran has struggled to operate its two cascades in the pilot plant for longer periods of time without breakdown.

Given quality-control problems and inexperience, Iran probably remains three to 10 years away from accumulating enough high-enriched uranium for the core of atom bombs -- assuming it wants them, intelligence estimates and independent analysts say.

"Most worrisome is that Iran is proceeding at a fast pace to install centrifuge cascades at Natanz, defying the Security Council's mandate to stop. This is a political move by Iran," Mark Fitzpatrick of the International Institute for Strategic Studies in London told Reuters.

The report provided no significant answers to long outstanding IAEA questions about the nature of Iran's program, such as mysterious traces of bomb-grade uranium and alleged military involvement in enrichment research.

Iran has repeatedly promised to clear up such issues. But diplomats say it is withholding answers as bargaining chips for any future settlement with world powers on the Security Council, whom it accuses of illegal bullying over its nuclear project.

(additional reporting by Francois Murphy in Paris and Boris Groendahl in Vienna)

Britain to cut Iraq troop levels by quarter

2007-02-21T08:30:00.000-08:00

By David Clarke and Katherine Baldwin
Britain said on Wednesday it would withdraw almost a quarter of its troops from Iraq in coming months, just as thousands of additional U.S. soldiers were arriving there to try to restore order in Baghdad.
British Prime Minister Tony Blair, whose popularity at home has suffered greatly because of his decision to go to war in Iraq, said troop levels would fall by 1,600, but soldiers would stay into 2008 if Iraq wanted.
"The actual reduction in forces will be from the present 7,100 -- itself down from over 9,000 two years ago and 40,000 at the time of the conflict -- to roughly 5,500," he said.
"The UK military presence will continue into 2008, for as long as we are wanted and have a job to do." he told parliament.
Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen also said on Wednesday Denmark would withdraw all ground troops from Iraq by August and replace them with 55 soldiers manning four helicopters. It has about 470 soldiers serving under British command.
President Bush has ordered an 21,500 extra American soldiers to Iraq where U.S. forces number some 141,000.
Vice President Dick Cheney welcomed the British announcement and said the United States wanted to finish its mission in Iraq and "return with honor."
The British move could embolden Democrats to increase pressure on Bush to set his own timetable for withdrawing U.S. troops from Iraq, where more than 3,100 U.S. and 101 British soldiers have been killed.
Blair, who is due to step down later this year, said the British plans reflected the vastly different security conditions faced by U.S. troops in Baghdad compared with those in southern Iraq, where Britain handed over command of the main Iraqi army unit in Basra to Iraqis on Tuesday.
"What all of this means is not that Basra is how we want it to be. But it does mean that the next chapter in Basra's history can be written by Iraqis," he said.
Many in Basra, Iraq's second city and main center for oil production, expressed relief at the planned British withdrawal but some voiced fears it was premature.
"They were occupiers and they should have left long ago," said Nour Abdul-Muttalib, a 29-year-old teacher. "They are not welcome in this city," she said.
Jaafar Saleem, a 38-year-old businessman in the city, said: "I think their exit will produce lawlessness in the city."
RICE: COALITION INTACT
Blair said Britain would retain combat capabilities to support Iraqi security forces in and around Basra.
"Increasingly our role will be support and training, and our numbers will be able to reduce accordingly," he said.
Cheney told ABC news from Japan the British announcement was "an affirmation of the fact that in parts of Iraq ... things are going pretty well."
Speaking at a news conference in Berlin, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice pointed out that thousands of British troops would remain in southern Iraq.
"The coalition remains intact," she said.
Australia, another key U.S. ally, said it had no immediate plans to reduce its 1,400-strong force in and around Iraq.
Democrats in the U.S. House of Representatives approved a non-binding resolution last week opposing the troop increase. Cheney said Washington would not back "a policy of retreat."
"We want to complete the mission, we want to get it done right, and we want to return with honor," he said.
Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki has called the U.S.-backed security crackdown in Baghdad which started last week a "brilliant success." But a spate of car bombs that have killed scores has tempered early optimism.
A car bomb exploded at a police checkpoint near a busy market in the holy Shi'ite city of Najaf on Wednesday, killing at least 11 people, and wounding 35 more, police said.
(Additional reporting by Adrian Croft, Sophie Walker, Deborah Haynes in London, Jeremy Pelofsky in Washington, Caren Bohan in Tokyo, Sue Pleming in Berlin, Aref Mohammed in Basra, Ross Colvin in Baghdad and Gelu Sulugiuc in Copenhagen)

Does the World have to face another war?

2007-02-20T13:32:00.000-08:00

Iran defiant on nuclear programme
Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has rejected international calls for Tehran to suspend uranium enrichment, a day before a UN deadline runs out.
He said Iran would only do so if states seeking the suspension stopped producing nuclear fuel themselves.
Mr Ahmadinejad said he wanted talks on his nation's nuclear programme, but only if no pre-conditions were imposed.
Iranian nuclear negotiator Ali Larijani said after talks at the UN nuclear agency no solution would come by force.
Mr Larijani said at the talks at the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in Vienna: "Anybody interested in non-conventional or illogical, irrational [moves] would definitely receive an appropriate response."

We have said that we want negotiations and talks, but negotiations under just conditions Mahmoud Ahmadinejad
But he said Iran was looking "for ways and means to start negotiations".
Speaking on the issue on a visit to Turkey, Iran's Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki echoed the view.
"The way to solve problems through diplomacy is dialogue," he said.
Details have emerged of US contingency plans for air strikes on Iran.
The US insists it is not planning to attack, and is trying to use diplomacy to persuade Tehran to stop uranium enrichment.
Tehran insists its programme is for civil use only, but Western countries suspect Iran is trying to build nuclear weapons.
Iran will face sanctions if it fails to observe Wednesday's UN Security Council deadline on enrichment.
US rejection
IAEA head Mohamed ElBaradei has warned in a UK media interview of the speed at which Iran's nuclear work is advancing.
He is due to report to the UN Security Council this week on whether Iran has met UN demands that it halt uranium enrichment by 21 February.
If it does not, and if the International Atomic Energy Agency confirms this, the council's resolution says that further economic sanctions will be considered.
In a speech to crowds in northern Iran, broadcast on state television, Mr Ahmadinejad called on Western nations to stop their own nuclear enrichment programmes if they wanted Iran to do the same.
He said: "They tell us 'come and negotiate on Iran's nuclear issue but the condition is to stop your activities.
"We have said that we want negotiations and talks, but negotiations under just conditions.'"
The US dismissed the call to close down Western production facilities.
"Do you believe that's a serious offer?" said White House spokesman Tony Snow.
Last year Iran resumed uranium enrichment - a process that can make fuel for power stations or, if greatly enriched, material for a nuclear bomb.
Incentives urged
Mr Larijani said his country was willing to give reassurances that no nuclear material would be diverted to a weapons programme but he remained defiant on uranium enrichment.
Mr ElBaradei told the Financial Times newspaper Iran could be only six months away from being able to enrich uranium on an industrial scale.
But he said "there's a big difference between acquiring the knowledge for enrichment and developing a bomb".
Mr ElBaradei also suggested the use of military force against Iran "would be catastrophic" and urged the Security Council to look at incentives as well as sanctions to bring Tehran back to the table.
The US has been pushing hard for the international community to take tough action should Iran not meet the council's demands.
Story from BBC NEWS:http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/middle_east/6378289.stm

3 U.S. women said kidnapped in Nablus

2007-02-20T09:04:00.000-08:00

Three American women seen taking photos near a West Bank refugee were kidnapped on Tuesday, Palestinian security officials said. There was no claim of responsibility by an armed Palestinian group, but a man calling himself Hadi Saud contacted The Associated Press in Nablus and said he was the kidnapper.

He demanded a job in the Palestinian security forces and medication for a shooting injury sustained last year, in exchange for releasing the hostages. He provided no proof that he is holding the women.

The security officials said the three women were last seen taking pictures on the outskirts of the Balata refugee camp near Nablus. The officials did not release the names of the three.

Micaela Schweitzer-Bluhm, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Consulate in Jerusalem, said U.S. officials were informed of the kidnappings. "We take them extremely seriously," Schweitzer-Bluhm said of the incident.

She said American officials were in touch with Palestinian security. She had no details on the identities of the women or what they were doing in the West Bank.

In the past, scores of foreigners were kidnapped by various Palestinian militant groups, but usually released unharmed after a few hours.

India Samjhauta blasts: LeT hand being probed

2007-02-19T14:05:00.000-08:00

The Times of India Online
[ 20 Feb, 2007 0148hrs ISTTIMES NEWS NETWORK ]

NEW DELHI: Sleuths probing the terror attack on Samjhauta Express have found significant leads, top intelligence sources claimed.

"We have found items which have unique features and can help us reach the perpetrators," they said. The needle of suspicion points to the dreaded Laskhar-e-Taiba, the gang behind several atrocities, though sources cautioned that a determination is yet to be made.

The breakthrough in the search for clues was confirmed by home minister Shivraj Patil who told presspersons: "We have sufficient information but we are not going to reveal for the sake of investigations." Coming from the usually cautious Patil, the assertion was seen as corroborating the confidence of the investigating agencies that they might be able to crack the case soon.

The lead came after hours of search had yielded no clue, leading the frustrated sleuths to conclude that they had almost a blind case on their hand. Investigators have detained one Pakistani citizen travelling in the train on the basis an account given by an injured passenger about his suspicious movements inside the train.

Sources also said investigations will focus on finding out the identity of the person who bought the suitcase used for carrying the explosives. Sleuths are also going to trawl the passenger manifest for the ill-fated Samjhauta Express as a top priority as they look to get more leads.

They will want all details from Pakistan of the 527 passengers who completed their onward journey. Though Pakistani agencies hardly have a history of cooperating with their Indian counterparts, this request will be difficult to turn down as victims included Pakistani nationals. Inadvertently, the joint terror mechanism may deliver some results.

A total of 605 persons had boarded the train at Old Delhi railway station on Sunday night, and it was felt that the explosives had timers set to go off in about an hour of departure. The bombs, placed in pipes and bottles and kept inside suitcases, went off about an hour and twenty minutes after the train left Old Delhi railway station.

Establishing the identity of who bought the suitcase used for ferrying the deadly contraband inside Samjhauta Expresss will be crucial. In the case of Malegaon blasts, the cycles on which the explosives were placed gave important clues and the shop owner who sold them could recall the buyers.

There has been little success in turning up e-mail or cellphone exchanges so far, indicating that terrorists may have learnt from the past where electronic trails had provided important breakthroughs. This means that forensic evidence will be even more vital than is usually the case and there may be a lot of old-fashioned policing to be done.

The identity of the group behind the attack is yet to be established, but the methods used, as has been the case often in the past, point to Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT). The group remains the most effective of the jehadi outfits in carrying out attacks across the length and breadth of India.

Officials in the home ministry accepted that intelligence agencies had really been caught unaware as there had been no specific intelligence about such a terror attack on Samjhauta Express.

Preliminary investigations revealed that the terrorists had planted suitcases carrying improvised explosives devices in at least three coaches, of which two were triggered by timers. These suitcase bombs, planted at Delhi railway station, were in the nature of "kitchen bombs" which can be easily assembled. Though packing less power than RDX, the fire the bombs started was calculated to be no less deadly. The devices were timed to go off approximately one hour after the train set out from Old Delhi Railway station at 10.40 pm.

Though the possibility of the bombers not actually boarding the train cannot be ruled out, sleuths would reach any such conclusion only after complete verification of the passenger lists. The possibility that they remained sitting in another compartment and might have crossed into Pakistan by now is not bring brushed aside.

While explosives were kept in three general compartments of the train, there is a list of passengers which sleuths feel could take them to terrorists. As evidenced in Mumbai suburban trains blasts, these attacks are not carried out by fidayeen and the perpetrators leave the site after hiding the bombs.

Home ministry sources said agencies are looking for passengers who were to board the train but did not undertake the journey. It is suspected that the bomber or bombers may have boarded the coach, left explosives in these compartments and disembarked at the departure point of Old Delhi itself. Lax security at the Old Delhi station for boarding the train could have come handy in this task.

Treasury names Iran firms weapons proliferators

2007-02-16T13:28:00.000-08:00

Fri Feb 16, 2007 11:14AM EST
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Stepping up the Bush administration's financial pressure on Iran over its nuclear program, the U.S. Treasury Department labeled three Iranian companies on Friday as proliferators of weapons of mass destruction, banning U.S. transactions with them.
The Treasury, invoking an executive order recently used against Iranian state-owned banks, said it would also seek to freeze any U.S. assets of Kalaye Electric Co., Kavoshyar Co. and Pioneer Energy Industries Co.
It said the companies are either owned by, controlled by or acting for the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran, the government agency that manages Iran's overall nuclear program.
"Treasury is taking this action to deny Iran access to the materials and services that support its nuclear ambitions," Stuart Levey, the Treasury's under secretary for terrorism and financial intelligence, said in a statement. He added that the action was consistent with the U.N. Security Council's recent resolution aimed curbing Iran's nuclear program.

Extra US Troops For Mission

2007-02-15T11:01:00.000-08:00

Sky News: Updated: 18:16, Thursday February 15, 2007
President Bush has confirmed 3,200 more US troops are being sent to Afghanistan to prepare for a spring offensive against the Taliban.
The soldiers were originally going to Iraq - but will now help NATO forces in their fight with insurgents.
Mr. Bush is asking the US Congress for $11.8bn (£4.7bn) over the next two years to assist the Afghan government.
"These forces and funds are going to help President Karzai defeat common enemies," the US leader said.
Both sides in the conflict have warned of an increase in fighting in the spring when the snow melts.
It comes after the bloodiest year since the hard-line Taliban Islamists were ousted by a US-led coalition in 2001.
Speaking in Washington, Mr. Bush said the NATO offensive was "part of our strategy - relentless in our pressure."
For the alliance to succeed against the rebels, he said member nations "must provide commanders on the ground with the troops and the equipment they need."
He criticized some countries for limiting the deployment of their soldiers to the more stable regions of Afghanistan.
The US is also sending 21,500 more US troops to Iraq, a decision which has led to criticism from Democrats and some politicians in his own Republican party.

EU accused over secret CIA flightsFrom correspondents in Strasbourg

2007-02-14T11:42:00.000-08:00

From correspondents in Strasbourg
February 15, 2007 04:36am
Article from: Reuters
EUROPEAN governments and intelligence services accepted and concealed secret US flights carrying terrorism suspects across Europe, the European Parliament said overnight.
European Union (EU) politicians backed a final report concluding a year of investigations into allegations the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) secretly held terrorism suspects in Europe and flew some to states where torture is used.
An article adopted by the deputies said the parliament "condemns extraordinary rendition as an illegal instrument used by the United States in the fight against terrorism.
"(It) condemns, further, the acceptance and concealing of the practice, on several occasions, by the secret services and governmental authorities of certain European countries."
At least 1245 CIA flights are alleged to have been made into or over Europe in the four years after the September 11, 2001, attacks on the United States, the report said.
Politicians criticised several countries, including Spain, Romania and Poland. They reserved some of the toughest admonishments for Italy, but toned down criticism of Germany which had been accused in a draft of the report of having been aware of one abduction.
The report said: "it is very likely, in view of the involvement of the secret services, that the Italian government of the day was aware of the extraordinary rendition of Abu Omar within its territory."
An Italian prosecutor wants to try 26 Americans, most believed to be CIA agents, and six Italians for their role in the 2003 kidnapping of the Muslim cleric Abu Omar in Milan.
A draft version of the report had urged the EU's 27 governments to launch an independent probe and to then punish states found to have breached the law.
But the final version dropped that demand and only called on the bloc to press all states to provide information, and later investigate if necessary.
The EU assembly has no legal powers over the matter and can only make recommendations.
The vote followed a debate in which socialists, liberals, greens and leftists condemned a "dirty war" waged with European complicity, while conservatives said the probe had yielded little evidence and was fuelled by anti-US sentiment.
"You cannot fight terrorism in a dirty war in our name," said Ignasi Guardans Cambo, speaking for the Liberal group.
"It is the rigorous analysis of five years of excesses and abuses often tolerated in the name of the fight against terrorism," socialist Claudio Fava, the report's author, told parliament.
"Many governments have looked the other way."
Jas Gawronski, the lead conservative MP on the EU investigating committee, disagreed.
"It presumes there is one chief guilty party and that is the United States," he said. "That's why we don't like this report."
Washington acknowledges the secret transfer of suspects to third countries, but denies torturing them or handing them to countries that did.
EU president Germany told MPs they should be more cautious in some of the accusations.
EU Justice and Security Commissioner Franco Frattini said: "It is not for the European institutions to pass judgments and to hand out verdicts but ... to ask that the truth be sought."
He was referring to judicial and parliamentary probes in several states including Germany, Spain and Portugal.

Campaign for 2008 kicks off in Bay Area

2007-02-13T10:57:00.000-08:00

PRESIDENTIAL HOPEFULS LINING UP TO VISIT SILICON VALLEY,
S.F.By Mary Anne OstromMercury News
Presidential holidays are taking on a whole new meaning in the Bay Area this month. With Rudy Giuliani's declaration in Santa Clara on Monday that he is ``100 percent committed'' to running for president, the former New York mayor kicked off a stream of visits here from White House wannabees.
Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, John Edwards, Bill Richardson and Tom Vilsack are all making the rounds over the next week. On Presidents' Day, next Monday, Obama, the Illinois senator, will make his first trip to the Bay Area since his weekend declaration that he's running. The following Friday, Clinton is scheduled for a private visit at Google.
It's a confluence of events not typically seen here, or at least not until closer to the primary election, still at least a year away. But the candidates are off and running already, in search of contributions and the cachet of Silicon Valley and Bay Area support.
A wide open race on both the Democratic and Republican side, excitement generated by high-profile candidates such as Giuliani, Obama and Clinton, and the strong likelihood California will move its primary up to next February accounts for the early barrage of attention. Also, most of the Democratic candidates are scheduled to appear at a Nevada forum next week, so the Bay Area makes a convenient fundraising stopover.
Since the state Senate is poised to vote as early as this week to move the California primary to Feb. 5 -- up from early June -- the state's role in picking the next president probably will increase.
``You might as well plant a bus stop at the door to the valley. They are going to be stopping by here a lot,'' said San Jose State University political-science Professor Larry Gerston. ``We're always a hotbed of fundraising, and there is no heir apparent to the presidency.''
On short notice, Giuliani drew a crowd of more than 500 to a Santa Clara hotel lunch on Lincoln's birthday, where he told technology executives and venture capitalists in a Churchill Club address that Americans need to be reminded why soldiers are dying in Iraq.
``What America needs is probably a reminder of why this is happening, and why the sacrifice of those American lives -- which is heartbreaking -- is necessary,'' he said. ``It's necessary because having a stable situation in Iraq will quicken our ability to defeat terrorism.''
Speaking of the ongoing threat of terrorism, Giuliani added, ``This is not a figment of George Bush's imagination; it's life and death.''
Giuliani made a pitch to the heavily tech-oriented audience, saying technology developed in the valley is a key to spreading the principles of democracy around the world.
Tony Perkins, who runs the blog AlwaysOn and invited Giuliani to speak, said Giuliani's California organizers have told him that building valley support is key to a California victory. Before lunch, Giuliani met with key valley Republican leaders, including venture capitalists Tim Draper and Floyd Kvamme, both of whom, Perkins noted, are fundraising pros in the valley.
Democrats, too, are making tracks here. On Thursday, about 150 people will gather at the home of venture capitalists and party activists Andy and Deborah Rappaport to raise money for former North Carolina Sen. John Edwards, the 2004 Democratic vice-presidential nominee.
``It is early. Still, with all the talk of the primary moving up it's not so early,'' said Deborah Rappaport. ``A lot of attention is being paid to the superstar candidates and that has focused people's attention on the races.''
Today, former Iowa Gov. Tom Vilsack, a Democrat, will address the Commonwealth Club in San Francisco. Next Tuesday, Democratic Gov. Bill Richardson of New Mexico will meet with supporters at several gatherings in Palo Alto and San Francisco.
Obama is planning a three-day California swing beginning Monday in the Bay Area. He will hold a San Francisco campaign fundraiser luncheon and appear at a reception and dinner at the St. Francis Hotel for U.S. Senator Barbara Boxer's re-election campaign. He plans to meet with Bay Area backers and will end the evening at a small event for supporters in Portola Valley, said Wade Randlett, a San Francisco-based finance co-chair for the Obama campaign. As of now, none of the events are open to the public.
In addition to a planned meeting with Google executives Feb. 23, Clinton also has scheduled a big-bucks San Francisco fundraiser at the Sheraton Palace and will meet supporters at private homes in Silicon Valley and elsewhere. Likely GOP candidate U.S. Sen. John McCain and former GOP Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, who is expected to formally announce his candidacy next week, also have recently visited Silicon Valley.
``Certainly to the degree that any candidate has a compelling story to tell about business development and innovation, this is the place not only to learn about those things but to tell that story,'' said Deborah Rappaport.

Has the US Made the World a More Dangerous Place?

2007-02-12T08:49:00.000-08:00

Russian President Vladimir Putin struck a nerve with DW-WORLD.DE's readers this weekend by commenting at the Munich Security Conference that the US has made the world a more dangerous place.

The following comments reflect the views of our readers. Not all reader comments have been published. DW-WORLD.DE reserves the right to edit for length and appropriateness of content.

I still hope that the US largely has its mind on peace; however, we should not entirely dispense with Putin's remarks. I cannot agree with some policies of our present government: for example, the prisoners kept in Cuba against international law, the cluster bombs used by Israel against Lebanon (supposedly made in the US), the invasion of Iraq on false or manipulated intelligence, the apparent support of Israel in creating atomic weapons. Putin seems to be on the defensive, but we, too, need to do what we preach. His remarks are strong, but not all together without weight. Truth can hurt. - Elisabeth Heptner, US

The US definitely has a rash and aggressive policy. Facing the unavoidable collapse of their economy, they are trying to find a solution, regardless of the overall cost, destabilization and thousands of deaths. The EU should not get involved in that risky game. - Darek, Poland

Keeping in mind that, due to media consolidation, Putin's remarks may be read a bit out of context, it's easy to see that there is more tension as a result of the Middle East conflicts. This is partly due to the US supporting Israel in its occupation of other lands and condoning (not interfering with) Israel's actions. Quotes regarding this are censored, and it seems most western countries are afraid to point a finger or say anything. It's also obvious that a lot of messes have been abandoned. Most here in the US know and talk about this, but it's rarely in the press. I'm glad Putin has the balls to stand out from the sheep. - Gene, US

I consider myself a patriotic American -- but believe that Putin made several legitimate points that deserve respect and careful attention. One Cold War was enough -- and one "hot" war (Vietnam) was enough as well. Too bad the Bush administration hasn't been able to grasp this. I would like my country's leaders to pay attention to what Putin has said -- but I won't hold my breath.- Curt Carpenter

The action of Bush in the sphere of foreign policy is tristful most of the time, and we've had more skillful world leaders. But in my opinion it is really childish to blame one country for the heartbreaking state of affairs that we've been witnessing recently. Neither the US nor Europe, Russia or China is the center of the world. Each of us is responsible for the situation in the world we live in. Maybe we don't know Putin's aim, but can be sure that Russian politicians are as pragmatic as those in the US with the only difference that the Russians aren't sincere about it. - Alice Navratilova

Finally someone is telling the truth. I can only confirm Putin's opinion concerning the US policy. Even so, I am not a friend of Putin's way of governing his country. The US no longer represents democracy. It is an aggressive country that violates human rights every day. The US is not able to solve the problems it started in Iraq and now Bush is claiming that the Iraqi government is responsible for the internal disaster. To me and many other people, the US is the top violator of human rights behind a shield of so called democracy. - Beatrice Frank

Putin is under pressure from the US' alliance in Europe. By using NATO as the key player for the its global strategy to confront Russia, the US is also telling Russia not to be involved in Iran's nuclear enrichment program. Putin's comment on the US is a fact. The US is trying to lead in a way that may cause threats. The superpower always controls the games of the world. - Rungsri Thienwongpetch

In regards to Putin's statement concerning the US administration's policy in Iraq and its deleterious effect on global security, he was stating the obvious. Even most of us here in the US are finally aware of that fact. - Patti Hudson

As an American citizen for 18 years, I have to attest that the Bush administration has made the world more dangerous. Their ignorance in international politics and lack of respect for other cultures' way of life are the main factors in their absolute failure to run this country. - Mariel Guerra

I think the US's role in making the world a more dangerous place is a fact no one can deny. Name one hot place in the world where US is not involved. Has its presence solved any problems? - Diaa Abdalla

There is no question that the Bush administration has helped increase the instability among nations. However, Putin fails to address two points: 1) Any mistakes in foreign policy are attributable solely to the Bush administration and not to the American people. There will be a new administration in 2008 that will pursue a new and more enlightened international path. 2) Putin, like Bush, has been the source of many problems throughout the world: the interruptions of energy supplies to other nations; the hostile posture towards Georgia and other former members of the Soviet Union; the barriers he has placed between the EU and eastern European nations that seek to join the Union, etc. Before Putin lectures other national leaders, he needs to radically alter the course of his misguided foreign policy. - JT Stockbridge

Although I know that Putin should put his own house in order, I have to agree with him on the point that, in the past few years, the US has made the world a very dangerous place and has overstepped its limits. I would even go as far as to put the blame entirely on the Bush administration. Let's hope that this nightmare will end soon. - Maria

Compiled by DW staff (kjb)

Harvard picks first woman president

2007-02-11T15:17:00.000-08:00

Monday Feb 12 09:26 AEDT

Harvard has chosen its first female president since its founding in 1636.

Celebrated historian Drew Gilpin Faust will replace Lawrence Summers whose short tenure has been dogged by controversial remarks about women and a faculty revolt.

Drew Gilpin Faust, 59, a scholar of the American South at Harvard who has never led a large institution, was named 28th president effective July 1, the oldest US institute of higher learning said in a statement.

Harvard becomes the fourth of the eight elite US Ivy League schools to name a woman leader.

Her major challenges include uniting nine powerful, highly decentralised faculties, steering the biggest undergraduate curriculum changes in three decades and presiding over an ambitious multi-billion dollar campus expansion, according to students and faculty familiar with Harvard's administration.

©AAP 2007

Peace Leadership

2007-02-11T11:37:00.000-08:00

The peaceful people’s movement of April 2006 and a series of memoranda of understanding between the Seven Party Alliance and Communist Party of Nepal-Maoists led to new hope for conflict transformation and peace building in Nepal. The subsequent agreements on arms management and interim constitution followed by the Peace Accord have ended the armed conflict. However, to achieve sustainable peace there remains the enormous tasks of reconciliation, reintegration, rehabilitation and reconstruction.

This is the right time to work on two fronts social as well as political. However, it is observed that total emphasis has been given only on political front. No doubt, politics is the main factor which drives other fundamentals of the society. A lot of development has already occurred in political structure of Nepal. Still, a lot has to be accomplished in a short time. The time constrains and singular focus sometimes makes take for granted for other elements.

Due importance for other essentials such as social harmony and economy must prioritize in order to stop conflict escalation. What can be done for social harmony?

The decade long conflict has taken not only the lives of more than 13000 people but also displaced hundreds of thousands. The conflict has created enmity between friends and relatives. One time friends have become polarized and joined the different camps. They fought hard and bore casualties. In such a situation if we just hope and pray for things to get better it will be naïve. Primarily, the political leadership can act making the situation better with framing pro people policy. Apart from that all political parties need to train and educate their cadres in the changed context. However, this may not be sufficient because political parties are contesting among themselves for political power also. The contest can bring disharmony and clashes. We are reading some kind of clashes in media. The clashes between Nepali Congress supporters Nepal Student’s Union and the Maoists supports ANSU(R), the UML trade unions and Maoists trade unions and so on are the burning instances of lack harmony, trust and tolerance among political activist.

Thus, the necessity of civil society and peace leaders cannot be minimized. They are the people not for political power but for sustaining peace and facilitating democratic practices. They are nonpartisan and more focus on democratic principles and respect of human rights. Since they are not contesting for an election, their thoughts and ideas are non prejudice and nonbiased.

We in Nepal need to develop a group of committed, highly trained peace leaders representing multiple sectors and communities of Nepali society who are devotional to peace and democracy and they intend to work in the grassroots level for sustaining ceased violence. The committed peace leaders need to focus on the causes and consequences of violent conflict. Under this so many relational topics might arise like structural imbalances of Nepali society that has contributed in prejudices and marginalization of peoples. They need to be the vehicle for social harmony working on reconciliation, reintegration, rehabilitation and reconstruction (4R).