Press freedom ‘violated’ in 15 C’wealth nations
JOHANNESBURG, Nov 4 — The international press freedom group, Reporters Sans Frontiers, has charged 13 Commonwealth countries, including India, of flouting press freedom.

Scary predictions of cyber age
LONDON, Nov 4 — In the century about to dawn, contraception will become superfluous, the attention span will cease to exist and two intelligent species will roam the earth.

5 judges elected to Hague
UNITED NATIONS, Nov 4 — Voting simultaneously, the UN General Assembly and the Security Council today elected five judges to the International Court of Justice (ICJ), the principal judicial organ of the world body.

28 parties in fray for Duma poll
MOSCOW, Nov 4 — Russia’s Central Election Commission (CEC) has registered 28 parties and blocs for contesting the crucial Duma poll scheduled for December 19 next, unlike 43 parties in the 1995 elections to the lower house.

Anwar Ibrahim hospitalised
KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 4 — Malaysia’s sacked Deputy Premier Anwar Ibrahim, on trial here on sodomy charges, was taken to hospital today on the Judge’s orders after complaining of persistent headaches.

Pandits seek $ 200 m aid from US Cong
WASHINGTON, Nov 4 — A US-based organisation of Kashmiri Pandits has urged the Congress to allocate $ 200 million for the relief and rehabilitation of the 3,50,000 Kashmiri Pandits forced to flee their homes in the wake of cross border terrorism masterminded by the Pakistani Intelligence in the valley.

Jakarta to pull out troops from Aceh

JAKARTA, Nov 4 (DPA) — The Indonesian military said today it would start withdrawing troops this month from Aceh province in a bid to end the bloody violence in the predominantly Muslim region.

Military Chief Admiral Widodo said the withdrawal of combat troops from Aceh would be conducted this month following an order from Indonesian President Abdurrahman Wahid earlier this week.

Mr Widodo admitted that the security approach towards Aceh problem was “not a proper way”, although soldiers’ presence in the province was based on a demand.

“It should be admitted that the presence of the TNI (armed forces) in Aceh is a part of the implementation towards a settlement to the Aceh problem,” he said.

In another move, the military authorities today appointed an Acehnese as Deputy Chief of the Indonesian military, believed by many to be a reconciliatory gesture towards the province.

Many feared that Aceh’s breakaway from Indonesia would herald the disintegration of the world’s fourth most populous country.

A campaign for a referendum was launched early this year by students and those who want broad autonomy within Indonesia as a compromise to the guerrillas’ demands for an independent Islamic state. 

Aceh leaders said earlier that they were encouraged by international support for an independence referendum for East Timor, but accept there were important differences between the two territories.

While East Timor, a former Portuguese colony that Indonesia annexed in 1976, was overwhelmingly Catholic, Aceh was predominantly Muslim. Most Indonesians were also Muslims, but not fundamentalists as the Acehnese. Aceh, which earlier fought for independence from the Dutch, was part of Indonesia when the country was established in 1945.

SIGLI (AP): More than 50,000 people rallied today in a massive demonstration of pro-independence fervour, two days after troops opened fire on rock-throwing protesters elsewhere in Indonesia’s troubled Aceh province.

The demonstrators are demanding a referendum on whether to remain part of Indonesia or break free, saying Aceh was never a part of Indonesia. They have been emboldened by East Timor’s decision to secede and angered by new President Abdurrahman Wahid’s statement on Monday that now is not the time for such a vote in Aceh.

Several Acehnese regional parliamentarians travelled to Jakarta and delivered an ultimatum demanding the government agree within one month to hold a referendum or they would conduct one themselves.

A Red Cross official said three people were killed and 22 injured on Tuesday in Meulaboh on Aceh’s west coast by soldiers when pro-independence supporters began torching government buildings.

Hundreds of trucks’ vans and motorbikes — packed with people carrying broken-off palm branches to shield themselves from the scorching sun — drove today through Sigli, a town of 20,000 people, 110 km east of the provincial capital, Banda Aceh.

Militants extol ‘jehad’

MURIDKE, (Pakistan) Nov 4 (AP) — Thousands of militants gathered here for congregation of the fundamentalist Pakistani mercenary group, Lashkar-e-Tayyaba have extolled jehad against India and the USA with Taliban delegates vowing never to hand over the world’s most-wanted terrorist Osama bin Laden.

A sprawling tented village has sprung on the outskirts of Lahore where tens of thousands of militants have gathered with the apparent go ahead of the new military rulers in Pakistan with participants singing praises of the holy war all over the world. Fraternal militant and fundamentalist delegates from Afghanistan, Sudan, Egypt and Saudi Arabia are also participating.

A prominent Lashkar chief, Qazi Abdul Wahid, today praised the military take-over in Pakistan disclosing that the organisation and other militant outfits feared a major crackdown from the deposed regime of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif. “We were being crushed by evil forces and the military take-over saved groups like ours.”

“The Nawaz Sharif government was about to initiate a big crackdown on religious groups and against us, but he was removed from power,” Qazi Wahid said, accusing Mr Sharif of what he called “betraying Kashmiri militants”.

The militants of this group were believed to have been behind yesterday’s attack on the Army Corps headquarters in Srinagar in Jammu and Kashmir with the attack ending in two Islamic militiamen being killed.

Banners were strung throughout the tented village extolling the values of jehad throughout the world. The banners condemned the USA as an enemy of Islam.

As people entered the camp, they were asked to contribute Rs 10 towards the jehad against India. “Rupees 10 is the cost of one bullet” said Jamil-ur-Rehman, who was collecting the money.

Window on Pakistan
Woman-editor as ambassador

Dr Maleeha Lodhi is again in the news, thanks to the Pakistani military regime's decision to send her to Washington as its ambassador. The honour has come to her for the second time. The first time she represented her country was in the early nineties after Ms Benazir Bhutto was sworn in Prime Minister on October 19, 1993. The Pakistan People's Party leader had chosen her to repair her country's relations with the sole surviving super power as Washington had begun showing signs of dislike for Pakistan because of Islamabad 's undeclared plan to build nuclear bombs. Ms Lodhi did not have any diplomatic experience, yet she produced the results on expected lines.

Going by the coverage of this significant appointment in the Pakistani media, one can say that Gen Parvez Musharraf has announced his choice in favour of Ms Lodhi not mainly because of her experience and result-oriented performance earlier but also because she is neither in the camp of Mr Nawaz Sharif nor of Ms Benazir Bhutto. She is known for her independent views and thoroughly professional style of functioning.

She was supposed to be close to Ms Bhutto when the latter offered her the coveted assignment the very first day of her taking over as Prime Minister for the second time (in 1993), but later developments proved that it was not a case of a friend favouring a friend. Ms Bhutto had preferred her classmate of her days at the London School of Economics because of Ms Lodhi's capabilities. That the then Prime Minister had known her personally for a long time was of secondary importance. Thus it was not surprising that Ms Lodhi totally distanced her from Ms Bhutto towards the end of the PPP leader's tenure to uphold independent views.

Ms Lodhi resigned her job and came back to Pakistan to become the Editor of The News, the Jung group's popular English daily, for the second time. She was instrumental in launching the daily and served it till 1993, when she had to leave journalism to enter the world of diplomacy at Ms Bhutto's invitation. Before her stint at The News she had been the Editor of The Muslim (respected for its independent views) since 1986 when she earned the distinction of being the first woman-editor of an English daily in the subcontinent.

She had always been interested in writing . That is why when she was teaching politics at her alma mater (London School of Economics, from where she did her Ph. D.) she wrote extensively on the state of affairs in Pakistan, rarely sparing the then military dictator, Gen Mohammad Zia-ul-Haq. When she accepted journalism as her full-time avocation, she wrote ascerbic commentaries on the functioning of the Benazir Bhutto government during her first term as Prime Minister (1988-90).

In 1994 Time magazine included her name in the coveted list of 100 persons of the world who deserved to be watched closely as they "will define the next century". Today she finds herself in a position where she can be expected to play that historic role. Her presence in Washington, the world's most important capital, will enable her to influence Pakistan's relations with India in an effective manner. But she will have to review her unrealistic opinion on the question of Kashmir, even though she might not be able to express it as freely as she could as a journalist.

Some time ago she was quoted as saying that "People in Pakistan believe that Kashmir is the unfinished agenda of Partition". This shows that she refuses to see the reality in the valley. She is also known for her reservations on the Lahore Declaration, though the bus diplomacy initiated by Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee was interpreted the world over as a significant step towards normalisation of relations between India and Pakistan.

— Syed Nooruzzaman

Press freedom ‘violated’ in 15 C’wealth nations

JOHANNESBURG, Nov 4 (AP) — The international press freedom group, Reporters Sans Frontiers, has charged 13 Commonwealth countries, including India, of flouting press freedom.

Bangladesh, Cameroon, Gambia, Kenya, Malaysia, Malawi, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Zambia and Zimbabwe also figured in the list.

The French-based Reporters Without Borders, as the group is called in English, urged the leaders to give the same priority to press freedom as they have in recent years to the erosion of democracy.

The report, released yesterday prior to next week’s meeting of 54 Commonwealth leaders in Durban from November 11 to 15, said that 21 journalists were killed in Commonwealth countries since the last meeting of heads of state in 1997.

It said 260 journalists were jailed or arrested since the last summit, and another 190 were victims of violence or torture.

Eight journalists were killed by rebels in Sierra Leone in January.

Since 1995, the Commonwealth has suspended Nigeria, Sierre Leone and more recently Pakistan for installing governments not democratically elected. Nigeria and Sierra Leone have returned to the Commonwealth, but Pakistan’s expulsion will be considered next week.

“This commitment to fundamental freedom needs to be taken further,” the group said.

Scary predictions of cyber age

LONDON, Nov 4 (Reuters) — In the century about to dawn, contraception will become superfluous, the attention span will cease to exist and two intelligent species will roam the earth.

Sex will be just for lust — babies will come from reproductive bank accounts — while phones and faxes will be dumped in favour of direct mind-to-mind communication.

Come 2010, according to the often-prescient Arthur C. Clarke, Prince Harry will become the first member of Britain’s royal family to fly in space. Lights will be turned on at the flick of a thought - switches will be consigned to history.

“This is all hugely exciting. These are the ideas of some of the world’s most distinguished academics at the close of the millennium,” said Sian Griffiths, editor of “Predictions”.

Published today, “Predictions” pulls together the disparate thoughts of 30 great minds, from economist J.K. Galbraith to writer Umberto Eco and feminist Andrea Dworkin.

Elaine Showalter, US feminist and historian of science, prophesies that “the 21st century will bring new paranoias, new hysterias, new conspiracy theories and new imaginary illnesses”.

Noam Chomsky asks if “humans are a kind of lethal mutation. The species appears in the last flick of an evolutionary eye.”

Kevin Warwick, a leading light in cybernetics, has implanted a chip in his arm to switch on his computer and open doors.

An ongoing project will see Warwick and his wife both insert chips to cut out speech and read each other’s minds. “We will simply be able to think to each other,” he said.

But for all its benefits, the new implant technology raises troubling questions about what it means to be human in the brave new world that lies just ahead.

“A human brain is a stand-alone entity, guaranteeing a unique human identity,” Warwick said. “But link a human brain via the Internet to other brains, both human and machine, and what of the individual then?”

5 judges elected to Hague

UNITED NATIONS, Nov 4 (PTI) — Voting simultaneously, the UN General Assembly and the Security Council today elected five judges to the International Court of Justice (ICJ), the principal judicial organ of the world body.

Four judges — Gilbert Guillaume of France, Rosalyn Higgins of Britain, Gonzalo Parra-Anguren of Venezuela and Raymond Ranjeva of Madagascar — were re-elected while one Judge Awn Shawkat Al-Khasawneh of Jordan is a first timer.

All five begin their nine-year terms on February 6.

Fifteen judges serve on the court, which adjudicates between member states, rendering binding legal opinions, and — when requested — giving advisory opinions to the UN and its specialised agencies. 

28 parties in fray for Duma poll

MOSCOW, Nov 4 (PTI) — Russia’s Central Election Commission (CEC) has registered 28 parties and blocs for contesting the crucial Duma poll scheduled for December 19 next, unlike 43 parties in the 1995 elections to the lower house.

Post-Soviet Russia’s four former Prime Ministers — Viktor Chernomyrdin, Sergei Kiriyenko, Yevgeny Primakov and Sergei Stepashin — are in the fray with their rival parties and election alliances.

Anwar Ibrahim hospitalised

KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 4 (AFP) — Malaysia’s sacked Deputy Premier Anwar Ibrahim, on trial here on sodomy charges, was taken to hospital today on the Judge’s orders after complaining of persistent headaches.

“The Judge has ordered Mr Ibrahim to be sent to Kuala Lumpur hospital immediately. He is not well,” Mr Sankara Nair, one of Mr Ibrahim’s lawyers, told reporters outside the court after the trial was once again adjourned earlier than scheduled.

“He has been complaining of pressure in his head and he is generally unwell. He looked pale,” the lawyer added.

Pandits seek $ 200 m aid from US Cong

WASHINGTON, Nov 4 (UNI) — A US-based organisation of Kashmiri Pandits has urged the Congress to allocate $ 200 million for the relief and rehabilitation of the 3,50,000 Kashmiri Pandits forced to flee their homes in the wake of cross border terrorism masterminded by the Pakistani Intelligence in the valley.

The Indo-American Kashmiri Forum (IAKF) Director, Dr Hira L Fotedar, in his testimony before the staff briefing organised yesterday by the Congressional Human Rights Caucus, urged the USA and the United Nations to take initiative in recognising the Pandits as refugees.

UN environment prize
NEW YORK: This year’sUN Environmental Prize has been awarded to Nobel laureate Mario J. Molina, who specialises in the chemistry of the ozone layer, the UN Environment Programme said on Wednesday. Mr Molina, an American scientist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, well receive the Sasakawa Environment Prize on November 17.— DPA

Jailed over essay
DALLAS: A 13-year-old student was breathing easy on Wednesday after spending six days in youth detention over a school essay that authorities said contained terrorist threats, news reports said. The reports said Chris Beamon wrote in a Halloween horror story assigned in English class how he went to school and shot the teacher and pupils who laughed at him. The pupil received the highest mark for the essay, but the police took him into custody afterward. — DPA

Prison mutiny
RIO DE JANEIRO: A gang of 20 prisoners at a state penitentiary have been holding six prison officers hostage, the police here said. The mutiny at the Aparecida de Goiania prison in the state of Goias, 220 km from Brasillia, started on Monday, when prison officers discovered that a seven-metre tunnel had been dug as an escape route for prisoners. — AFP

Photojournalist freed
CALI (Colombia): A prominent news photographer Henry Romero, whose kidnapping by Marxist rebels, the National Liberation Army (NLA), eight days ago drew international condemnation was freed unharmed on Wednesday in a mountainous region of South-West Colombia. — Reuters

‘Price’ of stolen roses
SINGAPORE: A Singapore woman who wanted to win back the love of her ex-boyfriend by having a flower shop deliver 999 roses was jailed for using a stolen credit card, a report said on Thursday. The bill for the red, pink and yellow floral bonanza came to $ 1,120. Paulin Ang, divorced and a 23-year-old mother of two, gave the florist the credit card number of a hotel guest where she was working as a receptionist. — DPA