Burma
to free top political figure
Yangon:
Burma's military junta has told the British Television
that high-profile political prisoner Win Tin is due to be
freed from prison. Win Tin, a close aide of detained opposition
leader Aung San Suu Kyi, has been incarcerated since 1989.
Deputy Foreign Minister Kyaw Thu said that Win Tin was on
a list of nearly 4,000 prisoners who authorities began releasing
last week. About 600 people have been freed so far, including
about 20 political prisoners.
Amarinder
Singh to attend Nanak birth celebrations in Pak
Chandigarh/Lahore:
The Chief Minister of the Indian side of Punjab, Captain
(retired) Amarinder Singh, and his Pakistani counterpart
Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi, will take part in the 535th birth
anniversary celebrations of Guru Nanak, the first spiritual
head of the Sikh community, on Friday. According to the
Daily Times, Captain (retired) Amarinder Singh will visit
the Nankana Sahib and the Gurudwara Janam Asthan in Sheikupura
near Lahore along with Elahi to convey his greetings to
Sikh devotees on the auspicious occasion. Stringent security
measures have already been put in place to prevent any untoward
incidents. Police and other law enforcement agencies have
incorporated special security measures.
It may be recalled that at the end of September, a mob of
Muslim youth attacked Sikh students from Nankana Sahib School
and forcefully closed the shutters of their shops. Reports
then said that the youth had also damaged parts of the Nankana
Sahib Gurdwara as a mark of protest over a recommendation
to shift the Government Guru Nanak Degree College out of
its premises to make way for Sikh pilgrims. Two Sikh students,
Pritam Singh and Surinder Singh were severely injured in
the attack, which drew worldwide Sikh condemnation. Meanwhile,
according to the Dawn newspaper, preparations to celebrate
Nanak's birth anniversary in Nankana Sahib, which is some
56 kilometres from Lahore, is close to completion. The buildings
of five gurdawaras, particularly Janam Asthan, have been
decently decorated. Besides, a post office and public call
booths are being set up in Gurdawara Janam Asthan to allow
the devotees access to proper communication facilities.
About 20,000 Sikhs from all over the world, including Pakistan,
India, Afghanistan, Dubai, Malaysia, Hong Kong, England,
America, France, Canada, Singapore and other countries,
are expected to attend the celebrations. The local administration
has arranged boarding, lodging and health facilities for
the yatrees. The birth anniversary celebrations will conclude
on November 27.
Sonia
can initiate Kashmir consensus: Mush (Go
To Top)
Islamabad:
Congress party president and chief of India's ruling
UPA alliance, Sonia Gandhi, can play a significant and "proactive"
role in facilitating a consensus between Pakistan and India
on vexed Kashmir issue, believes President General Pervez
Musharraf. The Daily Times quoted Musharraf as telling the
Telegraph that since Sonia enjoyed a unique position in
India, she should make sincere efforts to unite not only
her allies and the Left parties, but also the opposition
BJP in this regard. "Sonia Gandhi has a unique position
in India. She is highly respected and holds an important
position. If she takes a lead, I am confident that there
will be a breakthrough in Indo-Pak ties. She should try
to involve every one, her allies, the Left and the Opposition
BJP," the paper quoted him as saying.
He
said that since Sonia was not a part of the government,
she would be more free to work out a solution informally,
more so as she was at the "peak" of her "political" career.
"The good thing is that strictly speaking, she is not in
the government. So she can work it out in a more informal
way," Musharraf added. "I have interacted with the Indian
business community. They want to trade, exploit our markets
and the same feeling exists among our entrepreneurs. But
then, there cannot be commerce, cultural exchange in an
atmosphere of mutual suspicion and distrust," he said. Musharraf's
remarks assume significance in the wake of both India and
Pakistan continuing to harp on their respective stances
in so far as the factors that are needed to take the bilateral
composite dialogue process on eight delienated issues, including
Kashmir forward. On Wednesday, visiting Pakistani Prime
Minister Shaukat Aziz said that both Islamabad and New Delhi
needed to "think out of the box" on all pending issues,
including the core issue of Kashmir, to take the dialogue
between the two countries forward. India, on the other hand,
said that it was willing to explore all options for a justifiable
solution to all issues, but insisted that ground realities
needed to be kept in mind wheneever such interactions unfolded.
Bush,
Mush to discuss issues affecting Muslims (Go
To Top)
Islamabad:
Pakistan Foreign Minister Khurshid Mehmood Kasuri has
said, that Pakistan President General Pervez Musharraf would
during his talks with US President George W Bush, raise
issues affecting the Muslim community in the US led global
'War on Terror'. The Daily Times quoted him as saying that
since the fight against terrorism always had the possibility
of being wrongly viewed as a fight against Islam, therefore
it was necessary that the US takes upon itself the task
to solve issues affecting the Muslims all across the world.
"The war against terrorism cannot simply be fought by military
means as it concerns hearts and minds. Therefore, as a US
ally in the war against terrorism, President Musharraf will
call upon President Bush to help solve issues affecting
Muslims across the world, and particularly the issue of
Palestine," the paper quoted Kasuri as saying. He further
added that the "stop-over" meeting between Musharraf and
Bush would be important as it would be the first time the
two leaders will be meeting after Bush's re-election.
Six
Reliance Energy directors resign (Go
To Top)
Mumbai:
Six Directors of Reliance Energy Ltd. have resigned,
even as the differences between the Ambani brothers -- Mukesh
and Anil -- are showing no signs of abating. The directors
who have resigned include Satish Seth, S C Gupta, J P Chalsani,
K M Mankad, Professor J Ramachandran and Amitabh Jhunjhunwala.
The board is headed by Anil Ambani. The resignations have
been intimated to the Bombay Stock Exchange. Three days
ago Mukesh Ambani had issued a statement that there were
no "ownership issues" which he said had been settled during
the lifetime of their late father Dhirubhai Ambani. He followed
it up with an e-mail message to 80,000 employees of the
group that he as the Chairman and Managing Director was
the final authority in all matters concerning Reliance.
Anil Ambani was expected to make a public statement, but
has so far chosen not to do it. Meanwhile, the stock markets
reacted sharply to the news as scrips of the Reliance group
company took a severe beating, pushing the Sensex into losses.
Saurav-ICC
teleconference begins (Go
To Top)
New
Delhi: Indian cricket captain Saurav Ganguly's teleconference
with the International Cricket Council Appeals Commissioner
Tim Castle over the two-Test ban handed out to him has begun.
Ganguly was accompanied by coach John Wright, Jagmohan Dalmiya
and lawyers Siddhartha Shankar Ray and Ushanath Banerjee.
The teleconference began at the scheduled time but got delinked
for some time before it started again. Match Referee Clive
Lloyd, who reported Ganguly to ICC, is scheduled to join
the conference call from USA. ICC's in-house lawyer Urvasi
Naidoo is also involved in the call in an administrative
capacity. Ganguly was slapped a two-Test ban by the ICC
for slow over rate in the Platinum Jubliee one-day match
against Pakistan in Kolkata on November 13. After the skipper
appealed against the ban, the ICC appointed New Zealand
legal expert Castle to decide on the appeal. The ICC had
said yesterday that it has requested the Appeals Commissioner
to take a decision on Ganguly's appeal before the second
Test between India and South Africa beginning in Kolkata
on Sunday. After the teleconference, Castle will consider
the evidence he has heard from all the parties along with
the grounds of the appeal, match paperwork from Lloyd and
video of the match. Castle will then provide a written decision
to the ICC which will then be forwarded to Ganguly, Lloyd
and ICC Chief Executive Malcolm Speed.
