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LJUBLJANA: Slovenia became the first former communist state
to assume the rotating EU presidency on Tuesday, with Kosovo and
ratification of the bloc’s new constitutional treaty at the top of
its agenda. The small central European state, which borders Austria,
Croatia, Hungary and Italy, took over the presidency at the stroke
of midnight Monday, and will hold it for six months before passing
the baton to France on July 1. “The EU’s presidency is moving,
from the west to the east,” Slovenian Foreign Minister Dimitrij
Rupel said after officially taking over the role from Portugal’s
Foreign Minister Luis Amado in Madeira. “Ahead of us is an
offensive of friendship, partnership, good neighborliness, dialogue,
respect, understanding and solidarity,” Rupel said.
-- AFP
BEIJING: Chinese President Hu Jintao and his
South African counterpart Thabo Mbeki exchanged messages Tuesday to
mark the 10th anniversary of diplomatic relations. Hu said China and
South Africa have witnessed an all-round, rapid development in their
relations since they forged diplomatic ties 10 years ago. To
continuously consolidate and strengthen Sino-South African relations
is not only in the fundamental interests of the two peoples, but
also conducive to solidarity and cooperation between the two
countries, he added. Mbeki said in his message that bilateral
exchanges and cooperation, with unremitting efforts from both sides,
have made rapid and huge progress over the past 10 years, and
bilateral ties have developed into a mutually beneficial strategic
partnership.
-- Xinhua
TOKYO: An avalanche in central Japan’s Gifu
Prefecture around Monday midnight left four climbers unconscious,
local media reported Tuesday. A total of seven mountaineers, who
were asleep in tents at the time, were initially engulfed by the
12:15 a.m. avalanche in a slope of the 3,180-meter Mount Yarigatake
in Takayama, local police said. One of them escaped, and other
climbers rescued the other six. After they were taken to a nearby
hut, four of them were unconscious and had no pulse, the police
added. A rescue team from the local police is expected to arrive to
the hut as soon as Tuesday evening.
-- Xinhua
NAIROBI: World leaders Tuesday put diplomatic
pressure on Kenya to open dialogue with the opposition and stem the
post-election violence that has claimed some 250 lives in tribal
clashes and police raids. With defeated presidential challenger
Raila Odinga sticking to his guns after a vote he says was rigged,
and freshly reelected President Mwai Kibaki vowing to assert his
authority, the east African nation was locked in an unprecedented
and crippling crisis. European Union observers weighed in Tuesday
saying the disputed presidential election fell short of
international standards and called for an independent audit into the
results.
-- AFP
NEW DELHI: Seven police officers and one
civilian were killed by gunmen in an attack on a Central Reserve
Police Force (CRPF) recruitment camp in India’s northern Uttar
Pradesh. The attack took place when at least two armed militants
reportedly tried to enter the camp from the gate earlier this
morning. Police officials said that the terrorists armed with AK-47s
and grenades opened fire at the camp and killed the troopers after
being intercepted by the security personnel and police patrolling
the site. The area has been cordoned off and police have launched a
combing operation.
-- Xinhua
DES MOINES, Iowa: Barack Obama leads Hillary
Clinton in Iowa by seven points among Democrats, according to a new
poll, a nervy two days before the state opens the 2008 White House
nominating stakes. The Des Moines Register newspaper poll of people
likely to attend caucuses on Thursday, put Obama on 32 percent, with
the former first lady on 25 percent, a point ahead of former
Democratic vice-presidential nominee John Edwards. The poll is
highly respected in the state, which is notoriously difficult to
survey and where voters traditionally make up their minds late.
-- AFP
YANGON: Myanmar state-run media Tuesday called
on the country’s people to make continued efforts with renewed
vigor for the emergence of a new, peaceful, modern and developed
nation in the year of 2008. “At present, the government is
building up a peaceful and tranquil nation. In that regard, it is
placing emphasis on the emergence of such infrastructures as roads,
bridges, dams and reservoirs, universities and hospitals while
implementing electric power projects the length and breadth of the
nation,” said The New Light of Myanmar in its editorial on
Tuesday.
-- Xinhua
TEHRAN: Iran has imposed a drastic cut in gas
exports to Turkey to cope with domestic shortages caused by high
consumption and a halt in supplies from Turkmenistan on Tuesday.
“After the sharp fall in temperature and over the last days and
the halt to deliveries by Turkmenistan, exports of gas to Turkey
have been cut to a minimum,” the agency quoted an Iranian source
as saying. “We are obliged to deliver 20 million cubic meters of
gas [706 million cubic feet] to Turkey daily but now the volume of
exports has been reduced to 5 million cubic meters [177 million
cubic feet],” the source added.
-- AFP
ABU DHABI: The United Arab Emirates (UAE) will
introduce a medical liability law in March that will define
negligence, malpractice and mismanagement for the healthcare sector
on Tuesday. The drafting process of the medical liability law, which
the UAE Ministry of Health launched in early 2006, was complete now,
the ministry’s undersecretary Ali Shakar said. The law will define
negligence, malpractice and mismanagement, and deal with some
legal-ethical issues, such as abortion, he said. It will also
establish licensing criteria for doctors, nurses and other support
staff, and list their responsibilities, he added.
-- Xinhua
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