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Prachanda vows to implement Supreme Court decision on Pashupati temple

Tue, 06 Jan 2009 08:28:00 -0500

Nepal Prime Minister Prachanda has said that he will abide by the interim order delivered by Supreme Court (SC) on Pashupati temple row.

Talking to reporters here, the Prime Minister said, "We will respect the order of the apex court."

Issuing an interim order on Thursday, the Apex Court had asked the government and the Pashupati Area Development Trust (PADT) not to let the newly appointed Nepali priests offer worship at the temple till the Supreme Court issues its final verdict on the case.

Meanwhile, Deputy Prime Minister and Home Minister Bamdev Gautam said, "The apex court has given an order. We are consulting with attorney general to find ways of implementing it. We will definitely follow the order."

The government had earlier said they defended their decision to appoint new priests at the temple. However, following fierce criticism from within and outside the country, the government has now decided to follow the Supreme Court order, Nepalnews reported. (ANI)

Obama, Clinton remain guarded on Gaza conflict

Tue, 06 Jan 2009 08:26:00 -0500

U.S. President-elect Barack Obama and incoming Secretary of State-designate Hillary Clinton are not letting either the Palestinians or the Israelis know what the American foreign policy vis-à-vis the Middle East will be after January 20 this year.

According to the New York Daily News, that uncertainty may have spurred Israel''s decision to strike at the Hamas before Obama takes office.

Israel''s objective "clearly was to initiate this during the transition," the paper quotes Aaron David Miller, a Wilson Center scholar and former U.S. Mid East negotiator, as saying.

"Three weeks from now it will be his [Obama''s] responsibility to resolve this," he added.

Obama and Clinton have limited themselves to general comments on Israel''s right to self-defense in the current conflict.

An Obama transition aide, while stressing the "special relationship" between the U.S. and Israel, said: "We are not engaging in any action that could send confusing signals to the world about who speaks on behalf of the United States."

But during the presidential campaign, and before, both Obama and Clinton spoke out strongly on Israel''s behalf.

Palestinian Foreign Minister Riyadh al-Maliki said, "We are disappointed in President-elect Obama" for not calling on Israel to halt its offensive in Gaza. (ANI)

Malaysian Indian political leaders to attend ''Pravasi Bharatiya Divas''

Tue, 06 Jan 2009 08:26:00 -0500

Malaysian Indian political leaders of the MIC, DAP and PKR will leave for Chennai this week to attend the three-day ''Pravasi Bharatiya Divas''.

Representatives of the Hindu Rights Action Force (Hindraf) will also participate in the conference, which is scheduled to begin from tomorrow at the Chennai Trade Centre.

Hindraf chief P. Wathyamoorthy is also expected to participate in the Indian Diaspora Conference. Wathyamoorthy lives in a self-imposed exile in London.

MIC President Datuk Seri S. Samy Vellu will lead a 150-member delegation comprising top brass and divisional leaders of the largest Indian-based political party in the country.

DAP will send a 20-member delegation led by Penang Deputy Chief Minister P. Ramasamy. The delegation includes Perak state executive councillor A. Sivanesan and Selangor state executive councillor Dr Xavier Jayakumar.

A 40-member delegation is being sent by the PKR, Nst online reports.

There will be four speakers from Malaysia, namely Samy Vellu, Ramasamy, Malaysian Human Rights (Suhakam) Commissioner Datuk Dr Denison Jayasooria and Human Resources Minister Datuk Dr S. Subramaniam, who is also the secretary-general of MIC.

This is the first time in the conference''s history that Malaysian opposition parties are attending the Pravasi held in the ancestral state of the majority of Malaysian Indians. (ANI)

`Blitz Spirit'' behind fall in suicide rates in UK following 9/11, 7/7 terror strikes

Tue, 06 Jan 2009 08:25:00 -0500

There has been a drop in suicide rates in Britain to the tune of 40 percent in the aftermath of terror attacks such as 9/11 and 7/7, scientists in the country have opined.

The Telegraph quotes Dr Emad Salib, a consultant psychiatrist and senior lecturer at Liverpool University, as saying that any tragedy on a national scale such as a natural disaster, war or bombing brings society together in a common cause and this leads to the drop in suicides.

"There is greater social cohesion, the Blitz spirit," he said.

Dr Salib says that he expects to find that the effect of the London bombings would be greater than the 9/11 attacks because it happened on British soil and was carried out by British bombers.

But the drop in suicides was the same as after 9/11 and in fact the effect did not last as long.

After 9/11 the suicide rate in England and Wales remained low for four weeks, and it was the lowest September suicide rate for 25 years.

In contrast after 7/7 the suicide rate dropped for only two days. There was a similar drop after the attempted bombings on July 21st, 2005 as well, the research found.

Dr Salib said: "I expected to see a greater impact after 7/7 having had the disaster caused by home grown people and on British soil, but the effect was very brief and muted."

He said the explanation for this could be that the televised coverage of the 7/7 attacks was more moderate than 9/11.

The findings are published in the British Journal of Psychiatry. (ANI)

Faiz Baluch a ''casualty of geopolitics'', not a terrorist, argues British lawyer

Tue, 06 Jan 2009 08:25:00 -0500

A London court has learnt that a refugee Faiz Baluch, accused of calling for murder in the name of the banned Balochistan Liberation Army via websites and telephone links, was not a terrorist.

Helena Kennedy, the lawyer representing Baluch at Woolwich Crown Court,
said that Baluch was a ''casualty of geopolitics''.

Kennedy argued that Baluch can not be labeled a terrorist as he was calling for self-defence of his homeland Balochistan, an oil-rich province in southwest Pakistan.

Stating that he (Baluch) was a victim of close ties between Britain and Pakistan under Musharraf, Kennedy said: “The British government was drawn into that distortion purely for political reasons because Britain, like America, wanted Pakistan on side in the war on terror.”

''The Baloch people are entitled to defend themselves against brute violence, death and destruction.What he is saying to you is that if your survival is at stake you are entitled to defend yourself... If the Germans had marched into Britain we would have been entitled to resist,'' the Dawn quoted Kennedy, as saying.

Since 2004, several people have been killed in violence in Baloschistan, the bordering area of Afghanistan and Iran.

Rebels and extremists are demanding a greater share in profit from the natural resources and autonomy for themselves.

In recent times, the region is also hit hard by the Taliban and sectarian extremists making the scenario worse for the people residing here. (ANI)

Obama’s daughters spend first day at school ‘skipping and smiling’

Tue, 06 Jan 2009 08:24:00 -0500

All eyes were set on Sidwell Friends School in Washington, D.C. on Monday with people trying to find out what U.S. President-elect Barack Obama’s two daughters would do on their first day there.

Even though the media tried to record the historic occasion, there is not much of information on how Malia, 10, and Sasha, 7, spent their day.

One of the students has revealed that Malia seemed happy when he saw her in the cafeteria, after the lunch bell rang.

"She seemed to fit in like any other student. It looked like she made friends on her first day. She seemed very happy, she was skipping and smiling, she already had a lot of friends around her," the Washington, Post quoted the student, who declined to be identified, as saying.

Malia is a fifth-grader at the school''s Northwest Washington campus on Wisconsin Avenue, and Sasha a second-grader at the Bethesda campus not far up the road.

The paper has revealed that both girls will spend their days with one teacher, except for separate science and physical education instruction. (ANI)

Kiwi strip club boss sues over billboard ad ban!

Tue, 06 Jan 2009 08:24:00 -0500

Owner of a strip club in New Zealand has challenged a council ban on his club’s raunchy billboard.

Craig Trevenna, boss of New Plymouth''s Crave Club, was forced to remove the billboard featuring Lisa Lewis because of a bylaw that forbids commercial sex premises from advertising anywhere but on their own premises.

Trevenna disputes the council classification and plans to fight to have it changed to an entertainment venue.

"We are not a brothel, I don''t believe in them and I won''t stand for them, we are an entertainment venue and offer a safe and fun environment," the NZPA quoted him as saying.

However, the NPDC claims that going by the definitions in the bylaw, the club was classed as a commercial sex premises.

"Therefore the club is subject to the restrictions on signage," said customer services general manager Cathy Thurston.

But, she claimed that the bylaw did not apply to other businesses.

Trevenna is furious that while other businesses could use explicit images in advertising, on the other hand their industry is being discriminated against.

"It''s a hypocritical situation that we are in. I feel we are being stripped of our right to advertise. We want equal rights to market our business the same as everyone else," he said.

Trevenna said that there should be a level playing field for all business advertising, and they should be judged on the content of the ad and not the product.

"All businesses should have the ability to advertise, provided it is done tastefully," he said. (ANI)

UK budget hotel rooms teeming with mould, blood and faeces

Tue, 06 Jan 2009 08:24:00 -0500

Budget hotels in the UK have been found to be contaminated with blood, mould, urine and even faeces, an investigation has revealed.

In fact, the "most disturbing" discovery was made in a room at the Ibis hotel on Charles Street in Manchester—there the mattress was so badly soiled that the cover had started to fray and mould had begun to grow.

The investigation by the consumer group ‘Which?’, during stays at the UK''s five most visited budget hotel chains, also found food debris and stray fingernails lying on the floor, and duvets with suspected blood stains.

The five hotel chains investigated were –Travelodge, Premier Inn, Jurys Inn, Ibis and Comfort Inn.

"The rooms we inspected varied quite significantly when it came to standards of cleanliness, adding a whole new meaning to the concept of a dirty weekend,” The Telegraph quoted the report as saying.

The investigation found that carpets in one of these hotels contained high levels of dust and the mattress was in such an appalling condition that mould was growing on it.

Other than that, bathrooms were seen with urine streaked down the outside of a toilet and faeces on the toilet seat.

The report claimed that the revelations come, as the budget hotel sector seems to be bucking the downward trend in the hotel market amid the economic downturn.

For the investigation researchers from Which? Holiday inspected 16 rooms in budget chain hotels in London and Manchester during a four-day period in September 2008.

Lorna Cowan editor of Which? Holiday magazine said: "Our investigation was only a snapshot, but we are concerned about the standards of cleanliness we found.

"It is clear from our research that bacteria can be eliminated if appropriate cleaning materials and methods are used - as was the case in some of the rooms we inspected. Paying guests should be guaranteed, at the very least, a clean room."

Experts called for a single accepted standard for hygiene in hotels across the UK to help improve standards. (ANI)

Turkey restores late poet Nazim Hikmet’s citizenship

Tue, 06 Jan 2009 07:57:00 -0500

Turkey has decided to restore the citizenship of its first and foremost modern poet, Nazim Hikmet.

The playwright, regarded throughout the world as one of the greatest poets of the twentieth century, had his citizenship taken away from him following his Marxist beliefs in the 1950s.

The poet, who spent much of his adult life in prison or in exile, subsequently became a Polish citizen.

During the 1930s, Hikmet had revolutionised Turkish poetry, which has been translated into more than 50languages.

The 61-year-old, who was awarded the International Peace Prize by the World Peace Council in 1951, had passed away in exile in Moscow.

Deputy PM Cemil Cicek said the time had come for the government to rehabilitate the late novelist.

"The crimes which forced the government to strip him of his citizenship at that time are no longer considered a crime," BBC quoted him as saying. (ANI)

Jud ban becomes subject of politicking in Pak

Tue, 06 Jan 2009 05:50:00 -0500

Even though the whole world is concerned about terror activities being run from its soil, grave issues like banning dreaded terror outfits seems to be a subject of political brickbating in Pakistan, with the federal government and the provincial government contradicting each other.

Contradicting Information Minister Sherry Rehman’s statement on banning the Jud, Punjab government spokesman Pervaiz Rashid has said that the provincial government has already taken concrete steps aimed at putting curbs on Jamaat ud Daawa.

“Federal Minister Sherry Rehman’s statement in this connection is not based on facts,” the Nation quoted Rashid, as saying.

“The provincial government has already put five top JD leaders – Mufti Abdur Rehman, Hafiz Saeed, Ameer Hamza, Colonel Nazir and Yasin Baloch – under house arrest, sealed 61 offices of the charity and had taken over 19 dispensaries and 10 schools it ran,” Rashid claimed.

“Necessary measures are also being taken for assuming control of the central headquarters of Jamaatud Dawa at Muridke,” he added

Earlier, Pakistan Information Minister Sherry Rehman had said that stern action will be taken against the banned Jamaatud Dawa (JuD).

Rehman stated that proof against the JuD has been shared with the Punjab government, which has assured the federal government of co-operation.

“I am absolutely sure the Punjab government will act,” the Daily Times quoted Rehman,as saying in a television interview. (ANI)