UN in urgent Kashmir appeal
The UN World Food Programme has appealed for around 70 million dollars in urgent assistance to maintain food airlifts through the winter for people in quake-ravaged Kashmir.
The UN has warned of a second wave of deaths from cold, disease and hunger among the total 3.5 million left homeless as winter takes hold in the divided region claimed by both India and Pakistan.
The October 8 earthquake killed nearly 74,000 people in Pakistani Kashmir and parts of the country’s North West Frontier Province.
"We need substantial help, and the helicopters are critical, given the weather, the rugged terrain and our need to pre-position a huge amount of food in places throughout the affected area before the weather gets terrible," WFP executive director James Morris said.
Millions in mountanious areas are dependent on food supplies from the UN aid agencies, local government and humanitarian groups.
Morris said the WFP could keep making aid flights to remote areas through January, but needed some 70 million dollars to fund the air operations until the end of April.
The United Nations has launched a flash appeal for 550 million dollars of emergency aid but says it has got only 41 percent of the funding after two months.
Several pneumonia deaths have already been reported among children who survived the October 8 earthquake in Pakistan and its zone of Kashmir, hit hardest by the quake.(AFP)
Australia laws ‘as terrifying as terror’
The Australian parliament is poised to adopt new counter-terrorism laws, despite a last-minute warning from the country’s leading jurists group that the legislation is "as terrifying as terrorism itself".
The bill, which allows for the secret preventive detention of terrorist suspects for up to two weeks and permits authorities to impose controls on suspects, including electronic shackles, for up to 12 months, went before the Senate Monday.
It was expected to pass quickly as the conservative government of Prime Minister John Howard controls the chamber.
In addition to provisions for preventive detention, the bill broadens the little-used offence of sedition so it attracts a seven-year jail term for threatening the "peace, order and good government of the commonwealth".
The government defends the legislation as needed to combat the threat from Muslim militants.
But the Law Council of Australia, which groups lawyers’ societies and bar associations from Australia’s eight states and territories, warned Monday that the new legislation goes too far.
In full-page advertisements published in major newspapers, the council said the government was "using the threat of terrorism to introduce laws that put our most basic civil liberties under threat".
"The ramifications have the potential to be as terrifying as terrorism itself," read the ad, which included an open letter appealing to Howard to withdraw the legislation.(AFP)
Russia defends NGO curbs
President Vladimir Putin on Monday defended a bill that would severely restrict the access of charities and rights groups to foreign funding and said the measure was crucial to Russia’s war on terrorism.
Since the bill - which will also force all non-governmental organizations (NGOs) to re-register - was presented in October, activists have criticized it as an infringement of their rights.
Under the bill, Russian NGOs would lose access to most foreign funding, as well as being forced to re-register. Foreign NGOs would be unable to work in Russia in their current form.
President George W. Bush raised the issue at a summit with Putin last month.
Putin has previously said it will prevent foreigners undermining Russian sovereignty, which is seen by analysts as meaning they want to prevent a democratic revolution on the Ukraine model.
But he went further on Monday, saying it was key to defeating international terrorists hiding under the cover of NGOs.
"This bill is necessary to ensure the security of our political system from outside interference, to defend our society and citizens from the spread of terrorist and hateful ideologies," he was quoted by Interfax news agency as saying.
The Kremlin has previously used the needs of the war on terrorism to justify its abolition of elections for regional governors and restrictions on the media.(Reuters)
Congress drops Natwar Singh
Former Indian foreign minister Natwar Singh is coming under renewed pressure over claims that he benefited from the UN oil-for-food programme in Iraq.
India’s parliament was adjourned yet again Monday after opposition MPs demanded the resignation of Mr Singh, who is still a cabinet minister.
Late on Sunday, the Congress party removed Mr Singh from its highest decision-making body.
Mr Singh, who maintains he is innocent, has refused to leave the cabinet, saying to do so would be to suggest he was guilty.
Separately, reports say a fellow Congress member and India’s ambassador to Croatia, Aneil Matherani, is being questioned by officers of the enforcement directorate which investigates financial crimes.
Last week, Mr Matherani suggested in a magazine interview that Natwar Singh had facilitated the procurement of oil vouchers during a visit to Iraq in 2001.
Mr Matherani subsequently claimed that his comments to the magazine, India Today, were made off the record. He has since been recalled to Delhi.
Natwar Singh called the allegation "false and malicious" and said he would consult his lawyers.
The allegations first surfaced in a UN report published in October, in which Natwar Singh and the Congress party were named as non-contractual-beneficiaries of the oil-for-food programme.
The Indian government has ordered a judicial investigation headed by a retired Supreme Court judge.(BBC)
Intel to invest $1 bn in India
Intel Corp., the world’s largest chip maker, plans to invest more than $1 billion in India to strengthen its research and development and invest in telecoms and technology start-ups.
California-based Intel has a development center in Bangalore, India’s technology hub, which designs and develops software to power chips that drive computers and high-end networks for Internet-based applications.
It has already invested $700 million in Asia’s third-largest economy over the past decade and provided venture funding worth more than $100 million to 40 firms such as computer trainer NIIT Ltd. and telecoms software firm Sasken Communication Technologies Ltd.
Chairman Craig Barrett told reporters 800 million would be invested over the next five years to expand research and development at Bangalore in addition to marketing, education and community programs.
The firm will also create a $250 million India-specific venture fund to invest in start-ups focusing on mobile communications, broadband applications and mobile commerce.
Intel’s earlier Indian investments have ranged from $500,000 to $10 million. Some firms it backed, such as Rediff.com (REDF), have gone public.
India’s booming technology and telecoms sectors have been the flywheels of economic growth over the past three years as overseas and domestic demand for such services has exploded.
Russia sells missiles to Iran
Russia has struck a deal to sell short-range, surface-to-air missiles to Iran, the defense minister said Monday, confirming reports that have raised concern in the United States and Israel.
Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov didn’t give details. But Russian media have said that Moscow agreed in November to sell $1 billion worth of weapons to Iran, including up to 30 Tor-M1 missile systems over the next two years.
"A contract for the delivery of air defense Tor missiles to Iran has indeed been signed," Ivanov was quoted as saying by the Interfax news agency.
"This unequivocally will not change the balance of forces in the region," Ivanov added. Tor M1 missiles are short-range, surface-to-air missiles already used by several other armed forces, including China.
The reports last week prompted expressions of concern from the U.S administration and Israel, which considers Iran to be its biggest threat.
Israeli concerns recently were heightened after Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad urged that Israel be "wiped off the map."
Interfax said the Tor-M1 system could identify up to 48 targets and fire at two targets simultaneously at a height of up to 20,000 feet.
On Saturday, an influential Iranian official played down the deal, telling the official Islamic Republic News Agency that Tehran has been trading arms with many countries and would continue to do so.
Iran centre stage in Israeli election
Iran’s growing nuclear program has suddenly emerged as a campaign issue in Israel’s March elections. Top politicians have ratcheted up the tough talk against Iran, led by former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s bold call for a pre-emptive strike against Iranian nuclear installations.
Iranian leaders brushed off the latest threats Monday, warning that an attack "will have a lot of consequences."
Israeli leaders have long identified Iran as the nation’s biggest threat. Israel accuses Tehran of supporting Palestinian militant groups and rejects Iran’s claim that its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes.
Iran’s announcement Monday that it plans to build a second nuclear power plant - along with a deadly suicide bombing by the Iranian-backed Islamic Jihad group in the central town of Netanya - is likely to heighten Israel’s concerns.
While Sharon said the world cannot accept a nuclear Iran, he said diplomacy remains the first line of defense. He has not said what should be done if diplomacy fails.
Netanyahu, embroiled in a campaign for leadership of the hardline Likud Party ahead of the March 28th election, left few doubts about his solution: a pre-emptive strike similar to the 1981 attack ordered by then-Prime Minister Menachem Begin that destroyed an unfinished Iraqi nuclear reactor.(AP)
The UN World Food Programme has appealed for around 70 million dollars in urgent assistance to maintain food airlifts through the winter for people in quake-ravaged Kashmir.
The UN has warned of a second wave of deaths from cold, disease and hunger among the total 3.5 million left homeless as winter takes hold in the divided region claimed by both India and Pakistan.
The October 8 earthquake killed nearly 74,000 people in Pakistani Kashmir and parts of the country’s North West Frontier Province.
"We need substantial help, and the helicopters are critical, given the weather, the rugged terrain and our need to pre-position a huge amount of food in places throughout the affected area before the weather gets terrible," WFP executive director James Morris said.
Millions in mountanious areas are dependent on food supplies from the UN aid agencies, local government and humanitarian groups.
Morris said the WFP could keep making aid flights to remote areas through January, but needed some 70 million dollars to fund the air operations until the end of April.
The United Nations has launched a flash appeal for 550 million dollars of emergency aid but says it has got only 41 percent of the funding after two months.
Several pneumonia deaths have already been reported among children who survived the October 8 earthquake in Pakistan and its zone of Kashmir, hit hardest by the quake.(AFP)
Australia laws ‘as terrifying as terror’
The Australian parliament is poised to adopt new counter-terrorism laws, despite a last-minute warning from the country’s leading jurists group that the legislation is "as terrifying as terrorism itself".
The bill, which allows for the secret preventive detention of terrorist suspects for up to two weeks and permits authorities to impose controls on suspects, including electronic shackles, for up to 12 months, went before the Senate Monday.
It was expected to pass quickly as the conservative government of Prime Minister John Howard controls the chamber.
In addition to provisions for preventive detention, the bill broadens the little-used offence of sedition so it attracts a seven-year jail term for threatening the "peace, order and good government of the commonwealth".
The government defends the legislation as needed to combat the threat from Muslim militants.
But the Law Council of Australia, which groups lawyers’ societies and bar associations from Australia’s eight states and territories, warned Monday that the new legislation goes too far.
In full-page advertisements published in major newspapers, the council said the government was "using the threat of terrorism to introduce laws that put our most basic civil liberties under threat".
"The ramifications have the potential to be as terrifying as terrorism itself," read the ad, which included an open letter appealing to Howard to withdraw the legislation.(AFP)
Russia defends NGO curbs
President Vladimir Putin on Monday defended a bill that would severely restrict the access of charities and rights groups to foreign funding and said the measure was crucial to Russia’s war on terrorism.
Since the bill - which will also force all non-governmental organizations (NGOs) to re-register - was presented in October, activists have criticized it as an infringement of their rights.
Under the bill, Russian NGOs would lose access to most foreign funding, as well as being forced to re-register. Foreign NGOs would be unable to work in Russia in their current form.
President George W. Bush raised the issue at a summit with Putin last month.
Putin has previously said it will prevent foreigners undermining Russian sovereignty, which is seen by analysts as meaning they want to prevent a democratic revolution on the Ukraine model.
But he went further on Monday, saying it was key to defeating international terrorists hiding under the cover of NGOs.
"This bill is necessary to ensure the security of our political system from outside interference, to defend our society and citizens from the spread of terrorist and hateful ideologies," he was quoted by Interfax news agency as saying.
The Kremlin has previously used the needs of the war on terrorism to justify its abolition of elections for regional governors and restrictions on the media.(Reuters)
Congress drops Natwar Singh
Former Indian foreign minister Natwar Singh is coming under renewed pressure over claims that he benefited from the UN oil-for-food programme in Iraq.
India’s parliament was adjourned yet again Monday after opposition MPs demanded the resignation of Mr Singh, who is still a cabinet minister.
Late on Sunday, the Congress party removed Mr Singh from its highest decision-making body.
Mr Singh, who maintains he is innocent, has refused to leave the cabinet, saying to do so would be to suggest he was guilty.
Separately, reports say a fellow Congress member and India’s ambassador to Croatia, Aneil Matherani, is being questioned by officers of the enforcement directorate which investigates financial crimes.
Last week, Mr Matherani suggested in a magazine interview that Natwar Singh had facilitated the procurement of oil vouchers during a visit to Iraq in 2001.
Mr Matherani subsequently claimed that his comments to the magazine, India Today, were made off the record. He has since been recalled to Delhi.
Natwar Singh called the allegation "false and malicious" and said he would consult his lawyers.
The allegations first surfaced in a UN report published in October, in which Natwar Singh and the Congress party were named as non-contractual-beneficiaries of the oil-for-food programme.
The Indian government has ordered a judicial investigation headed by a retired Supreme Court judge.(BBC)
Intel to invest $1 bn in India
Intel Corp., the world’s largest chip maker, plans to invest more than $1 billion in India to strengthen its research and development and invest in telecoms and technology start-ups.
California-based Intel has a development center in Bangalore, India’s technology hub, which designs and develops software to power chips that drive computers and high-end networks for Internet-based applications.
It has already invested $700 million in Asia’s third-largest economy over the past decade and provided venture funding worth more than $100 million to 40 firms such as computer trainer NIIT Ltd. and telecoms software firm Sasken Communication Technologies Ltd.
Chairman Craig Barrett told reporters 800 million would be invested over the next five years to expand research and development at Bangalore in addition to marketing, education and community programs.
The firm will also create a $250 million India-specific venture fund to invest in start-ups focusing on mobile communications, broadband applications and mobile commerce.
Intel’s earlier Indian investments have ranged from $500,000 to $10 million. Some firms it backed, such as Rediff.com (REDF), have gone public.
India’s booming technology and telecoms sectors have been the flywheels of economic growth over the past three years as overseas and domestic demand for such services has exploded.
Russia sells missiles to Iran
Russia has struck a deal to sell short-range, surface-to-air missiles to Iran, the defense minister said Monday, confirming reports that have raised concern in the United States and Israel.
Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov didn’t give details. But Russian media have said that Moscow agreed in November to sell $1 billion worth of weapons to Iran, including up to 30 Tor-M1 missile systems over the next two years.
"A contract for the delivery of air defense Tor missiles to Iran has indeed been signed," Ivanov was quoted as saying by the Interfax news agency.
"This unequivocally will not change the balance of forces in the region," Ivanov added. Tor M1 missiles are short-range, surface-to-air missiles already used by several other armed forces, including China.
The reports last week prompted expressions of concern from the U.S administration and Israel, which considers Iran to be its biggest threat.
Israeli concerns recently were heightened after Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad urged that Israel be "wiped off the map."
Interfax said the Tor-M1 system could identify up to 48 targets and fire at two targets simultaneously at a height of up to 20,000 feet.
On Saturday, an influential Iranian official played down the deal, telling the official Islamic Republic News Agency that Tehran has been trading arms with many countries and would continue to do so.
Iran centre stage in Israeli election
Iran’s growing nuclear program has suddenly emerged as a campaign issue in Israel’s March elections. Top politicians have ratcheted up the tough talk against Iran, led by former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s bold call for a pre-emptive strike against Iranian nuclear installations.
Iranian leaders brushed off the latest threats Monday, warning that an attack "will have a lot of consequences."
Israeli leaders have long identified Iran as the nation’s biggest threat. Israel accuses Tehran of supporting Palestinian militant groups and rejects Iran’s claim that its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes.
Iran’s announcement Monday that it plans to build a second nuclear power plant - along with a deadly suicide bombing by the Iranian-backed Islamic Jihad group in the central town of Netanya - is likely to heighten Israel’s concerns.
While Sharon said the world cannot accept a nuclear Iran, he said diplomacy remains the first line of defense. He has not said what should be done if diplomacy fails.
Netanyahu, embroiled in a campaign for leadership of the hardline Likud Party ahead of the March 28th election, left few doubts about his solution: a pre-emptive strike similar to the 1981 attack ordered by then-Prime Minister Menachem Begin that destroyed an unfinished Iraqi nuclear reactor.(AP)
